^';?><y;^^'f?sy-??•,^y^^^■-^  atx" 


PRESENTED  TO  THE  LIBRARY 


OP 


PRINCETON  THEOLOGIML  SEMINARY 


BY 


jy[ps.   Rle3<^andei?  Pfoudfit. 

BV   4520    .C9    1888 

Cuyler,  Theodore  L.  1822- 

1909. 
Newly  enlisted 


NEWLY  ENLISTED 


A  SERIES  OF  TALKS 


WITH 


Young   Gonvrrts. 


BY 

THEODORE  L.  CUYLER,  D.  D., 

PASTOR  OK  LAFAYETTE  AVENUE  CHURCH,  BROOKLYN,  N.  V, 


AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY, 

150    NASSAU  STREET,   NEW   YORK. 


TO   MY   BELOVED   FRIEND 


Dw^iglit    L.   Moody, 


WHOSE  SINGI.E  AIM  IS  TO  LEAD  SOULS  TO  JESUS, 


THIS  LITTLE  VOLUME  IS 


AFFECTIONATELY  INSCRIBED. 


COPYRIGHT,  1888, 
AMERICAN  TRACT  SOCIETY. 


CONTENTS. 


NEWLY  ENLISTED 5 

ENLISTING  FOR  LIFE 12 

HOW  MUCH  HAVE  YOU  GOT? 19 

GIRDING  THE  LOINS 25 

SHOW  YOUR   COLORS! 31 

TRAINING  CONVERTS 17 

SPIRITUAL  HEALTH 44 

SOUL-FOOD 51 

WHERE  IS  YOUR  PLACE? 56 

CONSCIENCE  IN  RELIGION 62 

THE  MIGHTY  WORD  "NO" 67 

WATCH! 74 

THE  THOUGHT-MILL 80 


• 


4  CONTENTS. 

THE  SAFEGUARD  OF  TOTAL  ABSTINENCE 85 

THE  PERILS  OF  THE  PLAYHOUSE 93 

FOR  CHRIST'S  SAKE 100 

CONSECRATION 107 

MORE  ABUNDANT  LIFE 114 

PREPAID  PRAYERS 121 

A  CHRISTIAN'S  STAYING  POWER 127 

BRIGHT  CHRISTIANS 134 

LABOR  FOR  SOULS 141 

THE  WISE  AND  WINSOME  WALK 147 

KEEPING  THE  EYE  ON  JESUS 154 


NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

During  a  public  ministry  which  has  ex- 
tended beyond  forty  years  I  have  been  brought 
into  contact  with  thousands  of  persons  who  were 
just  commencing  the  Christian  life.  No  portion 
of  that  life  is  more  vitally  important  than  its 
early  stages.  A  new  convert  to  Christ — whether 
he  or  she  is  young  in  years  or  not — has  had  but 
a  very  limited  experience;  and  experience  is  like 
the  stern-light  of  a  vessel;  it  only  shows  the  path 
that  has  already  been  sailed  over.  But  every 
voyager  may  profit  by  the  experiences  of  others 
who  have  sailed  the  same  track  and  encountered 
the  same  difficulties  or  perils.  Every  word  of 
counsel    therefore  which   is  in  accordance  with 


6  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

God's  Book  and  with  the  actual  lives  of  his  peo- 
ple may  be  of  great  value  to  those  who  are  just 
setting  out.  It  is  my  aim  in  the  following  pages 
to  present  a  few  such  frank  and  fatherly  counsels. 
Some  of  the  chapters  may  be  equally  applicable 
to  those  who  are  farther  advanced  in  Christian 
growth.  But  my  chief  aim  is  to  reach  and  to 
instruct  those  who  have  nezvly  enlisted  in  the  ser- 
vice of  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

My  dear  friends,  you  must  bear  in  mind  that 
conversion  is  simply  an  enlisting  in  the  army  of 
Jesus.  The  battles  and  the  hard  bivouacs  are  yet 
before  you.  "Let  not  him  that  girdeth  on  his 
harness  boast  himself  as  he  that  putteth  it  off." 
We  w^ant  to  impress  it  upon  the  mind  of  every 
young  convert  that  the  real  conflict  has  only  be- 
gun, and  they  have  done  no  more  than  to  put  on 
their  armor  and  enroll  their  names.  Supposing 
you  to  be  truly  regenerated  by  the  divine  Spirit, 
what  next? 

We  would  reply  that  the  sowing-time  of  your 
spiritual  spring  has  just  begun.  Don't  repeat 
the   current   prattle   about   being  a    "harvested 


NHWI.Y    EN1.1STKD.  7 

soul  gathered  into  the  garner."  The  church  is 
not  a  granary.  You  are  just  beginning  to  sow 
for  yourself;  and  whatsoever  you  sow  you  will 
surely  reap.  You  are  forming  new  habits  of 
thinking  and  acting.  You  are  an  utterly  inex- 
perienced beginner  in  an  entirely  new  line  of 
life.  The  first  year  of  your  Christian  life  will 
have  a  mighty  influence  on  all  your  future. 
Many  a  wedlock  has  been  spoiled  by  a  bad  hon- 
eymoon. Many  a  promising  convert  has  been 
ruined  by  an  unhappy  start,  or  at  least  his  hopes 
of  spiritual  power  and  usefulness  have  been 
blasted. 

Begin  with  a  determination  to  learn  Christ's 
will  and  to  do  it.  This  is  what  that  famous  con- 
vert near  Damascus  was  aiming  at  when  he  in- 
quired so  anxiously,  "  Lord,  what  wilt  thoii  have 
me  to  do  ?"  It  is  very  well  to  know  what  a  Bun- 
van  or  a  Finney  or  a  INIoody  has  written  or  said 
about  the  Christian  life.  But  go  to  the  foun- 
tainhead.  Go  to  Jesus  in  a  humble,  docile  spirit 
and  ask  him  in  fervent  prayer  to  guide  you. 
Bend  your  will  to  his  will.     He  is  perfectly  will- 


8  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

inof  to  miide  the  meek  and  the  teachable  in  the 
right  way.  I  honestly  believe  that,  when  a  do- 
cile heart  sincerely  asks  to  be  led  and  then  obeys 
the  voice  of  conscience,  that  heart  seldom  takes 
a  false  step;  yea,  never  does.  Jesus  promises  to 
lead  you  in  the  way  of  all  truth.     Trust  him. 

Conscience  is  the  vital  point.  You  need  not 
trouble  yourself  much  about  your  feelings  or  your 
frames  as  long  as  conscience  turns  as  steadily 
towards  Christ  as  the  needle  towards  the  North 
Pole.  It  is  the  office  of  conscience  to  detect  sin 
and  righteousness,  to  decide  for  one  and  to  reject 
the  other.  Feelings  are  very  fallacious.  Some 
Christians  are  very  devout  in  their  feelings  and 
wretchedly  deficient  in  their  daily  conduct.  They 
forget  that  the  best  proof  of  love  to  Christ  is  to 
*'  keep  his  commandments."  Fervent  Christians 
in  the  prayer-meeting,  they  are  sorry  specimens 
of  Christians  outside  of  it.  There  is  a  lamenta- 
ble lack  of  conscience  in  too  much  of  the  flaming 
piety  which  burns  out  all  its  oil  in  the  prayer- 
room  or  the  "  praise-meeting."  We  do  not  won- 
der  at   the  sneers  which  are  often  levelled  by 


NEWLY   ENLISTED.  9 

shrewd  men  of  the  world  at  this  sort  of  *' revival 
religion."  See  to  it  that  you  give  no  occasion 
for  such  sneers.  See  to  it  that  Jesus  is  not  be- 
trayed before  his  enemies  by  your  inconsistency. 
The  best  thing  you  can  do  for  your  Saviour  and 
your  Master  is  to  live  an  honest,  truthful,  pure, 
and  godly  life.  Others  are  watching  you.  Then 
watch  over  yourself. 

In  putting  on  your  armor  don't  forget  that 
the  sword  of  the  Spirit  is  the  Word  of  God.  Be 
not  content  with  merely  reading  your  Bible; 
study  it.  Instead  of  skimming  over  whole  acres 
of  truth,  put  your  spade  into  the  most  practical 
passages  and  dig  deep.  Study  the  twenty-fifth 
Psalm  and  the  twelfth  chapter  of  Romans,  as 
well  as  the  sublime  eighth  chapter.  Study  the 
whole  Epistle  of  James.  It  will  teach  you  how  a 
Christian  ouo:ht  to  behave  before  the  world.  As 
you  get  on  farther  you  may  strike  your  hoe  and 
your  mattock  down  into  the  rich  ore-beds  of  the 
book  of  John.  Saturate  your  heart  with  God's 
Word. 

As  for  your  field  of  Christian  work,  you  ought 

2 


lO  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

not  to  have  much  trouble  about  that.  Follow 
God's  leadings  and  go  into  the  first  field  of  labor 
which  opens  to  you.  Do  not  seek  easy  posts  or 
those  which  will  flatter  vanity.  Brave  Mary 
Lyon  used  to  tell  her  pupils  at  Mount  Holyoke 
to  "go  where  no  one  else  was  willing  to  go." 
Threescore  of  her  graduates  became  missionaries 
for  Christ  Jesus.  As  soon  as  you  begin  to  think 
that  you  are  too  good  for  your  place,  then  the 
place  is  too  good  for  you.  Do  what  you  can  do 
best.  A  converted  inebriate  in  mv  conofrcQ^ation 
has  found  his  field  in  a  praying  band  for  the  ref- 
ormation of  drunkards.  While  you  are  working 
for  the  Master  do  not  neglect  the  inner  life  of 
your  own  soul.  If  you  do  not  keep  the  fountain 
well  filled  with  love  of  Jesus,  the  stream  of  your 
activities  will  run  dry  as  soon  as  the  novelty  is 
over. 

Your  daily  battle  will  be  with  the  sins  that 
most  easily  beset  you.  The  serpent  often  scotched 
is  not  killed.  Paul  himself  had  to  give  his  car- 
nal appetites  the  "black  eye  "  pretty  often.  You 
will  never  get  your  discharge  from  this  war  with 


NEWLY   ENLISTED.  II 

the  old  Adam  until  you  enter  heaven.  The  mo- 
ment you  fall  asleep  the  Philistines  will  be  upon 
you.  Challenge  every  tempter  that  approaches 
you.  The  dangerous  devil  is  the  one  that  wears 
the  white  robe  and  cozens  you  with  a  smooth 
tongue. 

Finally,  strive  to  be  a  Christian  man  every- 
where. Carry  the  savor  of  your  communion 
with  Christ  wherever  you  go.  Jacob  brought 
into  his  old  blind  father's  presence  such  an  odor 
of  the  barley-ground  and  the  vineyard  that  he 
had  "the  smell  of  a  field  which  the  Lord  had 
blessed."  Every  place  you  enter  ought  to  be 
the  better  for  your  presence.  Never  disappoint 
the  expectation  of  your  Master.  He  is  the  best 
master  in  the  universe.  Having  put  on  the  uni- 
form of  his  glorious  service,  wear  it  until  you 
are  laid  in  your  coffin.  Carry  his  banner  up  to 
the  heavenly  gate.  When  Death  calls  your 
name  on  the  roll  be  ready  to  answer,  "  Here!" 


12  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


ENLISTING  FOR  UFE. 


Many  of  my  readers  may  be  agitating  the 
question  in  their  minds,  Ought  I  to  enlist  pub- 
licly in  the  service  of  Jesus  Christ  and  unite 
with  his  church  ?  A  vitally  important  ques- 
tion this  for  all  who  are  considering  it;  a  very 
important  one  also  for  parents  and  teachers  to 
whom  the  young  may  apply  for  counsel  in  re- 
gard to  such  a  decisive  step.  An  immense  ma- 
jority of  those  who  unite  with  our  churches  by 
confession  of  faith  are  under  twenty-five  years  of 
age.  The  impulsiveness  and  the  inexperience 
of  youth  are  elements  of  danger;  on  the  other 
hand,  the  fact  that  the  young  have  not  yet  rooted 
down  so  deeply  into  old  habits  of  sin  is  an  ele- 
ment of  hopeful  encouragement.  Every  pastor 
can  find  on  his  muster-roll  more  or  less  names 
of  those  who  enlisted  for  Christ  and  then  drifted 
away  as  deserters.     The  list  of  the  wounded  and 


ENLISTING    FOR    LIFE.  13 

*' missing"  is  sadly  large  in  almost  every  large 
church.  The  time  for  careful  inspection  on  the 
part  of  a  pastor  and  for  thorough  self-inspection 
on  the  part  of  the  candidate  is  the  time  of  enlist- 
ment. 

The  first  question  of  all  with  you,  my  friend, 
if  you  propose  such  an  important  step,  is  this: 
Have  I  joined  my  heart  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ? 
Have  I  been  born  into  a  new  life  by  his  Spirit? 
Have  I  found  in  him  what  my  soul  most  needs, 
and  surrendered  that  soul,  without  any  reserva- 
tions, to  his  keeping  and  control?  The  heart 
union  to  Christ  must  precede  any  public  union 
with  his  church.  If  you  wnll  turn  to  an  unno- 
ticed incident  in  Old  Testament  history,  you 
will  see  an  illustration  of  what  I  mean.  Ittai  of 
Gath,  a  blunt  honest  soldier,  led  his  regiment  of 
Gittites  in  review  before  King  David  at  a  very 
critical  time  during  Absalom's  rebellion.  The 
old  king  frankly  and  generously  tells  him  that 
there  is  dano^er  ahead  if  he  enlists  for  the  cam- 
paign.  But  the  plucky  Philistine  has  so  knit  his 
heart  to  the  exiled  monarch  that  his  prompt  re- 


T4  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

ply  is:  "As  the  Lord  liveth  and  as  my  lord  the 
king  liveth,  surely  in  what  place  my  lord  the 
king  shall  be,  whether  in  death  or  in  life,  even 
there  also  will  thy  servant  be."  That  solemn 
oath  of  loyalty  came  from  the  heart.  If  others 
turn  traitors,  Ittai  means  to  stick.  He  can  die 
for  the  "old  flag,"  but  he  will  never  desert.  A 
few  days  later  on,  and  the  body-guard  of  Gittites 
with  the  valiant  Ittai  at  their  head,  march  back 
triumphantly  into  Jerusalem,  bringing  the  exiled 
David  to  his  palace  and  his  throne. 

The  prime  essential  with  you  is  that  you 
shall  put  your  Saviour  just  where  that  loyal  sol- 
dier put  his  sovereign — in  the  core  of  your  heart. 
You  must  be  ready  to  say,  "Wherever  Christ 
leads,  I  will  follow;  whatever  he  commands,  I 
will  obey."  For  bear  in  mind  that  the  chief 
thing  you  do  when  you  enlist  in  Christ's  service 
is  not  to  subscribe  to  a  system  of  sound  doctrine 
(important  though  that  may  be),  but  to  confess 
Jesus  as  your  Saviour  and  Lord  and  to  pledge 
to  him  lifelong  loyalty  and  obedience.  You  join 
your  weakness  to  his  strength,  your  ignorance  to 


ENLISTING   FOR   LIFE.  15 

his  wisdom,  your  iinworthiness  to  his  merits, 
your  interests  to  his  oversight,  your  poverty  to 
his  resources,  your  whole  self  to  his  service.  If 
you  do  that  sincerely,  Christ  becomes  responsi- 
ble for  you.  He  will  provide  for  you  spiritual 
armor.  He  will  furnish  you  the  daily  rations  of 
truth  and  grace  to  feed  you.  His  precious  prom- 
ise is,  '*My  grace  is  sufficient  for  you."  His 
guaranty  is,  *'  No  man  shall  pluck  you  out  of  my 
hands;  because  I  live  ye  shall  live  also."  Christ 
accepts  no  volunteer  for  six  months  or  for  a  sin- 
gle campaign.  If  you  enlist,  you  must  enlist  for 
life.  On  the  blade  of  that  sword  of  the  Spirit 
which  the  Captain  of  your  salvation  hands  to 
you  is  inscribed:  "He  that  endureth  unto  the 
end  shall  be  saved." 

But  you  may  inquire,  "Just  how  ought  I  to 
feel  and  just  what  should  I  be  when  I  take  the 
lifelong  obligation  of  church  membership  on  my- 
self?" God's  Word  crives  a  verv  brief  answer 
when  it  declares  that  if  you  trust  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  you  shall  be  saved.  This  inward 
faith  must  be  evidenced  by  daily  conduct.      ]\Iy 


1 6  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

own  custom  as  a  pastor  is  to  put  into  the  hands 
of  every  applicant  for  admission  into  the  church 
a  brief  statement  of  the  nature  of  church  mem- 
bership and  the  following  six  questions:  i.  Have 
you  seen  yourself  to  be  a  sinner  against  God? 

2.  Have  you  not  only  repented  of  your  sins  and 
sought  forgiveness,  but  do  you  hate  all  manner  of 
sin  and  pray  to  be  delivered  from  its  dominion? 

3.  Is  your  hope  of  acceptance  with  God  founded 
upon  the  Lord  Jesus  as  your  atoning  Saviour, 
and  upon  him  only  ?  4.  Have  you  given  3'our 
heart  to  Christ,  and  are  you  willing  to  follow 
him  whithersoever  he  shall  lead  you?  5.  Is  it 
your  honest  purpose — in  reliance  on  his  grace — 
to  cleave  to  Christ  as  your  Redeemer  and  your 
Guide  to  the  end  of  life  ?  6.  In  order  to  main- 
tain your  Christian  life  do  you  conscienciously 
practise  the  duties  of  prayer  and  the  study  of 
God's  Word  as  your  daily  rule  of  conduct? 

You  will  notice  that  these  interrogatories  im- 
ply an  enlistment  for  life.  Also  that  they  em- 
brace the  two  core  ideas  of  Christianity,  which 
are  to  abhor  sin  and  to  love  CJirist — to  turn  from 


ENLISTING   FOR    LIFK.  17 

sin  and  to  follow  Christ.  These  seem  to  my 
mind  to  be  the  Scriptural  evidences  of  regenera- 
tion. The  new  life  in  your  soul  may  as  yet  be 
very  feeble;  it  may  be  only  the  weak  pulse-beat 
of  an  infant;  the  blade  of  grace  may,  like  the 
blades  of  grass  in  IMay,  be  very  small;  but  if  the 
life  imparted  by  Jesus  is  there^  then  you  may 
strengthen  it  by  an  open  confession  of  Him. 
When  Christ  bestows  converting  grace  he  de- 
mands confession.  Love  prompts  it.  A  fire 
kindled  in  a  stove  reports  itself;  concealment  is 
impossible.  If  nobody  among  your  associates 
ever  suspects  or  supposes  that  you  are  a  Chris- 
tian, then  you  ought  to  doubt  if  you  are  one. 
Be  honest  with  yourself  and  with  God.  Ask 
him  to  search  vou  and  to  gfuide  vou  ario^ht;  and 
if  after  self-examination  and  testing  you  are  per- 
suaded that  Jesus  Christ  has  begun  to  live  in  your 
soul,  then  openly  enlist  in  his  service.  "  Do  you 
think  that  you  love  Christ?"  I  asked  a  young 
convert  recently.  The  prompt  answer  was,  "I 
knoiv  it."  Why  should  he  not  know  it;  for  love 
is  a  conscious  emotion  and  act  of  the  heart.     Do 

Newly  F.nlisfei.  1' 


l8  NEWI.Y  ENUSTED. 

not  hold  back  because  enlisting  for  Christ  in- 
volves responsibility  and  will  excite  the  watch- 
ful observation  of  others.  You  need  that ;  wit- 
nesses are  intended  to  be  w^atched  and  examined. 
If  enlistment  puts  you  into  hard  battles,  all  the 
better.  Cowards  and  shirks  win  no  victories 
and  wear  no  crowns. 

Pitch  your  standard  high  and  then  push  on 
and  fight  on  up  to  your  colors.  Do  not  be  dis- 
heartened by  some  failures  and  repulses;  there  is 
no  soldier  who  has  not  known  some  defeats. 
Peter  was  badly  defeated  in  Pilate's  hall;  but  it 
made  him  a  more  watchful  and  a  stronger  war- 
rior  ever  afterward.  In  religion  as  in  war,  it  is 
going  "under  fire"  that  makes  the  true  soldier. 
The  Bible  phrase  "a  perfect  man"  really  signi- 
fies a  ftdl-grown  man,  but  how  can  you  reach 
that  unless  vou  beo;in  ? 

Do  you  desire  to  be  on  Christ's  side  at  the 
Day  of  Judgment?  Then  enlist  on  that  side 
now,  and  say  to  your  Master,  "  Lord,  wherever 
thou  art,  whether  in  life  or  death,  there  will  tin- 
servant  be !" 


HOW   MUCH    IIAVK    YOU   GOT?  19 


HOW  MUCH  HAVE  YOU  GOT? 


*' How  many  loaves  have  ye?"  was  our 
Lord's  question  to  his  disciples  as  he  was  con- 
fronted by  a  hungry  multitude  on  the  far  shore 
of  Gennesareth.  He  might  have  brought  down 
a  shower  of  manna  from  the  heavens  or  called 
up  a  miraculous  growth  of  laden  fruit-trees  from 
the  earth.  But  he  never  displayed  a  wanton  su- 
perfluity of  power;  to  make  the  utmost  of  what 
tliey  had  was  a  lesson  he  often  taught  to  his  fol- 
lowers. The  disciples  reply  to  him  that  they 
have  only  seven  loaves  and  a  few  little  fishes. 
He  immediately  seats  the  crowd  and  begins  to 
distribute  the  scanty  supply,  which  wonderfully 
increases  in  his  hands,  and  again  increases  still 
more  in  the  hands  of  the  distributers,  until  the 
whole  four  thousand  are  satisfied.  Here  was  a 
miracle  of  creative  power,  for  at  the  end  of  the 
feast  there  are  seven  rope-hampers  filled  with  the 
yet  untasted  food. 


20  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

An  admirable  lesson  does  this  deed  of  mercy 
teacli  to  every  new  convert  at  the  very  start. 
How  much  have  you  got  already?  Then,  with 
the  Spirit's  help,  strive  to  make  it  more.  This 
is  the  lesson  for  you  to  learn  and  to  put  into 
prompt  practice.  You  have  discovered  a  new 
and  fresh  truth  in  some  texts  of  God's  Book.  Let 
this  slight  taste  of  the  sweetness  and  meatiness 
of  the  Bible  stimulate  you  to  wider  and  deeper 
study.  A  Bible-diet  strengthens  for  Bible-duty. 
To  a  certain  degree  you  have  been  convicted  of 
your  own  sinfulness,  and  have  exercised  some 
degree  of  penitence.  Probe  deeper  yet;  pray  for 
more  thorough  self-knowledge,  and  lop  off  un- 
sparingly every  sin  that  doth  easily  beset  or  en- 
trap you.  It  is  a  shocking  mistake  for  young 
converts  to  imagine  that  they  have  done  up  their 
repentance  once  for  all.  Friend,  those  two  men 
had  got  many  stages  on  their  journey  who  gave 
utterance  to  the  fifty-first  Psalm  and  the  seventh 
chapter  to  the  Romans,  Have  you  opened  your 
lips  in  a  prayer-meeting  or  to  an  unconverted 
friend,  or  laid  hold  of  some  effort  to  do  good  ? 


HOW   MUCH    HAVE   YOU   GOT?  21 

Then  don't  be  disconraged  by  your  poor  suc- 
cess; push  on,  and  find  that  there  is  downright 
luxury  in  shaming  down  self  and  trying  to  serve 
Christ.  Your  faith  may  yet  be  a  mere  sprout  or 
bulb  ;  but  just  as  nature  is  busy  in  evolving  into 
growth  the  roots  and  seeds  and  bulbs  she  lias  (not 
in  trying  to  create  new  ones),  so  be  thou  busy  in 
exercising  the  faith  thou  hast  and  asking  Jesus 
to  enlarq-e  it.  Observe  that  Christ  said  to  his 
disciples,  "  Bring  the  loaves  hither  to  me."  So 
you  must  take  all  your  faculties,  all  your  gifts, 
all  your  endeavors — yes,  and  all  your  poor  insuf- 
ficiencies—right to  your  Master. 

Having  a  capital  of  grace  to  start  with,  de- 
termine to  increase  it.  If  one  had  asked  young 
John  Jacob  Astor,  the  German  emigrant,  "  How 
much  have  you  got?"  he  would  have  replied, 
"Nothing  but  my  brains  and  my  hands."  A 
little  later  he  might  have  said,  ''  I  have  laid  up 
one  thousand  dollars."  But  out  of  the  seven 
loaves  and  few  fishes  of  his  scanty  youth  grew 
the  magnificent  possessions  of  real  estate  that 
made  him  the  richest  man  of  his  day  in  America. 


22,  NEWLY   EN  LISTED. 

You  have  got  to  become  "rich  towards  God  "  by 
the  same  simple  principle  of  economically  using 
the  gifts  which  the  Holy  Spirit  has  bestowed 
upon  you.  Every  answered  prayer  must  increase 
your  faith  to  pray.  Every  slip  you  make,  every 
tumble  through  carelessness  or  self-confidence, 
should  teach  you  to  walk  more  circumspectly. 
All  the  satisfaction  you  feel  in  being  a  young 
beginner  for  Christ  should  fire  you  to  become 
a  larger,  deeper,  wiser,  holier  Christian.  A  rock 
has  been  smitten  in  your  heart  by  the  hand  of 
Christ,  and  it  has  begun  to  give  out  streams. 
Remember  that  he  who  smote  the  rock  that  the 
waters  gushed  out  can  give  you  bread  also  for 
your  whole  life-journey.  I  beg  you  do  not  be 
satisfied  with  a  dwarfish  piety.  Some  converts 
never  grow  an  inch;  they  are  planted  in  the 
church  and  then  stunted  for  life.  Their  seven 
loaves  get  stale  and  dry  and  their  few  little 
fishes  shrivel  up;  if  they  had  been  distributed  in 
God's  service  they  would  have  multiplied. 

Diffusion    brings    increase.     The    more    you 
give,  the  fuller-handed  you  are.      If  Andrew  or 


now   ML'CII   IIAVK   YOU   GOT?  23 

Peter  had  slipped  off  out  of  the  crowd  with  a 
piece  of  barley-loaf  and  said,  "  I  will  make  sure 
of  this  for  myself,"  they  would  have  had  only 
that  morsel,  and  when  it  was  gone  there  were 
nothing  for  anybody  else.  There  is  that  scatter- 
etli  and  yet  increaseth;  there  is  that  withhold- 
eth,  and  it  tends  to  penury.  I  wish  I  had  the 
space  to  write  out  here  the  history  of  a  certain 
gold  coin  which  a  poor,  hard-toiling  young  girl 
gave  to  the  Lord;  it  would  be  a  beautiful  illus- 
tration of  the  multiplication  of  one  loaf  into  a 
basketful  of  blessings.  Sow  plentifully  if  you 
want  a  harvest.  You  are  serving:  a  jjenerous 
Master.  The  harder  3'ou  work,  the  better  pay; 
the  more  you  do  for  Jesus,  the  more  you  will 
love  him. 

I  verily  believe  that  the  richest  joys  of  heav- 
en will  be  the  simple  enlargement  of  what  we  are 
on  earth.  The  few  oriq-inal  loaves  will  be  multi- 
plied.  The  joys  of  household  love  will  be  per- 
petuated and  purified.  The  thirst  for  divine 
knowledge  will  be  infinitely  increased  and  satis- 
fied.    Whatever  we  did    for  Jesus  here  will    be 


24  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

our  "treasure  in  heaven"  when  we  get  there. 
Death  is  not  the  end  of  serving  Christ;  it  is  only 
the  transfer  to  a  higher  and  wider  reahn  in 
which  they  all  "serve  him  day  and  night  in  his 
temple,  and  he  that  sitteth  on  the  throne  shall 
spread  his  tabernacle  over  them."  If  we  have 
desires  after  holiness  here,  we  shall  there  attain 
unto  the  spotless  robe  and  to  the  perfect  likeness 
of  our  Lord.  The  faint  glimpses  of  Jesus  here, 
as  "through  a  glass  darkly,"  will  then  become 
the  enrapturing  sight  of  the  King  in  his  beauty. 
All  this  exceeding  weight  of  glory  will  only  be 
the  natural  outcome  and  enlargement  of*  what 
began  here  zvheii  ive  began  with  Clwist^  and  he  in 
lis.  Then,  young  friend,  how  many  loaves  have 
you  to  start  with?  See  to  it  that  they  are  all 
brought  to  your  Master,  and  by  the  multiplica- 
tion-table of  grace  you  will  bless  others  around 
you  and  have  several  full  hampers  for  heaven. 


GIRDING   TIIK    LOINS.  25 


GIRDING  THE  LOINS. 


"Wherefore,  gird  up  the  loins  of  your 
mind,"  is  the  stirring  exhortation  of  that  same 
enthusiastic  disciple  who  had  once  girded  his 
fisherman's  tunic  about  him  and  leaped  out  of 
the  boat  to  swim  to  his  Master.  The  ancients, 
as  our  readers  know,  were  accustomed  to  wear 
loose,  flowing  garments,  and  when  any  strenuous 
exertion  was  required,  they  gathered  the  folds 
of  their  drapery  and  bound  a  girdle  about  their 
waist.  A  spiritual  process  similar  to  this  is  es- 
sential to  a  vigorous,  effective  Christian  life. 

Jesus  Christ  does  not  put  you  or  me  into  his 
church  just  to  make  us  comfortable.  Nor  is  get- 
ting to  heaven  the  sole  object  or  even  the  chief 
object  of  becoming  a  Christian.  Obedience  to 
Jesus  Christ  is  the  first  thing.  This  is  the  core 
of  Christianity.  The  phrase  "girding  the  loins  " 
implies  readiness  for  duty.     On  that  last  night 

4 


26  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

in  Egypt  the  children  of  Israel  were  commanded 
to  stand  with  girded  loins  and  sandalled  feet, 
with  staves  in  their  hands,  ready  to  be  off  on 
their  exodus  at  a  moment's  notice.  Paul  at  the 
start  of  his  grand  career  inquired,  "Lord,  what 
wilt  thou  have  me  to  do  ?"  At  the  finish  he  ex- 
claimed, "Now  I  am  ready  to  be  offered  up!" 
We  pastors  soon  discover  who  are  the  minute- 
men  in  our  churches.  Whether  it  be  work  or 
money  or  service  of  any  kind  that  is  required  of 
them,  their  cheerful  response  proves  that  Christ 
has  the  first  hold  on  their  hearts.  Eagerness  for 
the  fight  marks  the  true  soldier;  eagerness  for 
the  run  made  the  successful  Olympic  racer;  eag- 
erness to  do  Christ's  will,  or  even  to  endure 
hard  blows  for  his  Master,  marks  the  happy, 
ready-hearted  Christian.  The  moment  that  a 
minister  counts  sermon-making  a  drudgery  his 
girdle  has  broken. 

2.  Another  idea,  suggested  by  the  apostle's 
phrase  is  the  compacting  of  all  our  powers  upon 
the  work  we  have  in  hand.  Consecration  is  not 
enoug-h  without  concentration.      Paul's  "this  one 


GTRDIXG   TIIK    LOIXS.  2'] 

tiling  I  do"  tightened  his  resolves  and  kept  him 
from  fritterinof  awav  life  on  trifles.  Sir  Isaac 
Newton's  secret  of  success  was  "intending  his 
mind  upon  the  thing."  Pericles  only  knew  one 
street  in  Athens,  the  street  that  led  from  his  own 
house  to  the  Executive  Chamber.  At  this  sea- 
son of  the  year  the  feeble  sun-rays  may  be  so 
focused  by  a  burning-glass  as  to  set  wood  on  fire. 
I  know  some  men  and  women  of  moderate  abili- 
ties, who  under  the  concentrating  power  of  the 
love  of  Christ  make  wonderfully  useful  Chris- 
tians. This  compacting  of  one's  self  for  the 
duty  at  hand  is  well  described  by  the  current 
phrase  of  a  man's  "pulling  himself  together." 
Some  church  members  go  to  pieces  for  want  of 
a  stout  girdle. 

3,  Loin-girding  also  implies  a  wholesome 
idea  of  restraint.  Laxity  is  the  curse  of  the  times 
in  doctrine,  in  preaching,  in  social  life,  and  in 
church  life.  Loose  thinking  leads  to  loose  liv- 
ing. The  very  word  "  religion"  signifies  some- 
thing- that  holds  us  together  and  binds  us  to  God. 
We  cannot  do  just  as  we  like.     The  people  who 


28  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

clamor  for  liberty  to  do  as  tliey  please  and  who 
scout  at  Bible  restraints  as  a  yoke  of  bondage, 
are  the  very  people  who  drift  away  into  vaga- 
bondage. A  robust  Christian,  like  a  robust  sol- 
dier, understands  the  value  of  drill  and  disci- 
pline, and  learns  to  obey  the  higher  powers.  It 
is  not  a  good  sign  when  a  follower  of  Christ  be- 
gins to  loosen  his  girdle.  He  is  preparing  to 
shirk  or  skulk  or  go  to  sleep.  Tighten  the  loins, 
brother,  and  make  up  your  mind  that  a  noble, 
victorious  Christian  life  is  not  the  easiest  thing 
in  this  world. 

Easy  things,  like  cheap  things,  are  of  small 
value.  The  best  attainments  must  be  paid  for. 
God  has  put  some  pretty  steep  hills  on  his  road 
to  heaven,  and  vou  will  need  to  o^ird  vour  loins 
if  you  expect  to  climb  them.  He  provides  the 
girdle;  you  have  but  to  clasp  it  about  you.  He 
offers  you  a  belt  embroidered  with  these  words: 
*' My  grace  is  sufficient  for  thee."  Clap  it  on, 
and  you  will  find  that  the  things  which  seem 
impossible  become  possible  to  a  resolute,  un- 
shrinkiuQ:   faith.       Mr.    Moodv's    nes^ro    woman 


GIRDING   THE    LOIXS.  29 

was  about  right  when  she  said  that  if  God  or- 
dered her  to  jump  through  a  stone  wall,  the  jump- 
ing was  her  part,  and  the  getting  through  was 
his  look-out  and  not  hers.  God  promises  that 
he  will  "gird  us  with  strength,"  and  that 
strength  is  always  equal  to  the  load  to  be  car- 
ried or  the  cliff  to  be  clambered. 

It  may  be  a  timely  text  to  preach  about  in 
this  ao^e  of  "liberal"  thinkino;-  and  mucila2:inous 
theology.  Some  people  are  falling  all  apart  and 
going  to  pieces  from  very  looseness  of  principles. 
Weakness  becomes  wickedness.  All  backsliding 
in  the  church  starts  from  looseninof  the  hold  on 
Christ.  Conscience  loosens  its  grip.  The  very 
garments  which  the  Christian  wears  become  en- 
tangled in  all  manner  of  worldly  and  sinful  prac- 
tices, until  he  can  no  longer  make  headway. 

Wherefore,  let  us  gird  up  the  loins  of  our 
souls  and  "be  sober,"  Life  is  not  a  frolic,  and 
the  service  of  our  crucified  Lord  is  not  child's 
play.  The  end  of  all  things  is  at  hand  with 
each  of  us.  There  is  an  exultant  joy  in  the 
daring  and  the  dash,  the  push  and  the  climb,  the 


30  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

conflict  and  the  victory,  of  a  well-girded  soul  on 
his  way  to  his  crown.  The  prize  is  for  the  racer 
and  none  else.  They  who  would  fain  go  to 
heaven  in  what  Rutherford  calls  a  "close-cov- 
ered chariot"  may  not  gain  admission  at  the 
gate;  or  if  they  do,  they  will  be  ashamed  to  look 
God's  heroes  there  in  the  face.  Let  your  loins 
be  girded  and  your  lamps  be  burning,  and  ye 
yourselves  be  like  unto  men  who  wait  for  their 
Lord.  "Blessed  are  those  servants  whom  the 
Lord  when  he  cometh  shall  find  watching;  he 
shall  gird  himself  and  make  them  to  sit  down  to 
meat  and  will  come  forth  and  serve  them." 


SHOW   YOUR   colors!  31 


SHOW  YOUR  COLORS ! 


The  name  of  Capt.  Hedley  Vicars,  the  Chris- 
tian hero  of  the  Crimean  war,  is  familiar  to  most 
of  our  readers.  On  the  morninof  after  his  con- 
version  he  bought  a  large  Bible  and  placed  it 
open  on  the  table  of  his  room.  He  was  deter- 
mined that  an  open  Bible  for  the  future  should 
be  his  "colors."  "//  was  to  speak  for  me,"  he 
said,  "before  I  was  strong  enough  to  speak  for 
myself"  His  military  comrades  came  in  and 
laughed  at  him,  nicknamed  him  the  MetJiodist^ 
hinted  to  him  that  he  had  better  not  turn  "  hyp- 
ocrite;" but  in  spite  of  a  perpetual  guerilla  war- 
fare of  sneers  and  scoffs,  he  nobly  stood  by  his 
colors.  Having  "clean  hands,  he  waxed  stronger 
and  stronger."  In  time  he  became  a  spiritual 
power  in  his  regiment,  simply  by  a  steadfast, 
bold,  decided  witnessing  for  Christ. 

To    his    early    disciples    Jesus    Christ    said, 


32  NEWLY  KNLISTKD. 

"Whosoever  shall  confess  me  before  men,  him 
will  I  confess  also  before  my  Father  which  is  in 
heaven."  Confession  is  a  broad,  far-reaching 
word  as  the  Saviour  employed  it.  It  refers  first 
to  the  heart,  then  to  the  lips,  then  to  the  life. 
Whosoever  would  be  saved  must  embrace  Christ 
in  the  heart:  this  was  conversion.  Next,  he 
must  acknowledge  him  with  the  tongue:  this 
was  confession,  or  what  we  style  a  "profession 
of  faith."  Chiefest  of  all,  he  was  to  honor  Christ 
by  his  daily  living:  and  this  was  vital  Christian- 
ity. 

Jesus  did  not  refer  to  the  first  point  when  he 
gave  the  command  to  confess  him  ^^ before  men.^^ 
He  pre-supposed  the  secret  interior  work  of  con- 
version; he  pre-supposed  the  root.  What  he  de- 
manded was  the  leafing  out  and  the  fruit-bearing 
of  the  tree.  He  demanded  a  bold,  resolute,  out- 
spoken, love-inspired  acknowledgment  of  him  as 
their  Saviour  and  their  King  from  every  man 
who  expected  to  be  acknowledged  in  turn  before 
the  Father  and  the  holy  angels.  This  confession 
was  to  be  open,  spontaneous,  and  sincere.     Has 


SHOW   YOUR  colors!  33 

the  reader  of  this  paragraph  never  made  such  an 
acknowledgment  of  Christ?  Then,  my  friend, 
you  must  not  be  astonished  if  Christ  refuses  to 
recognize  you  in  the  last  decisive  hour  of  judg- 
ment. It  will  then  be  too  late  to  take  the  oath 
of  loyalty.  He  who  does  not  confess  Christ  in 
this  world  will  be  lost  in  the  world  to  come. 

In  nearly  every  community  there  are  a  few 
halting,  timid,  irresolute  persons  who  have  a 
trembling  faith  in  Christ,  but  who  do  not  come 
out  decidedly  and  confess  him.  They  may  be 
Christians,  but  the  world  is  not  allowed  to 
know  it.  They  carry  dark  lanterns.  ^'Shining 
lights"  they  certainly  are  not.  No  one  is  the 
better  for  their  secret,  clandestine  attempts  to 
steal  along  quietly  towards  heaven  without  let- 
ting any  one  overhear  their  footsteps.  Now  this 
is  a  miserable — we  were  almost  ready  to  say  con- 
temptible— mode  of  living,  this  concealment  of 
the  colors  when  danger  threatens,  this  following 
along  after  the  church  with  a  vague  hope  of 
being  counted  in  among  God's  people  when 
heaven's   prizes  are  distributed  to  the  faithful. 

Newly  Enlisted.  f 


34  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

We  do  not  say  that  no  one  can  be  saved  who 
does  not  openly  join  some  Christian  church.;  but 
we  do  say  that  the  person  who  expects  Christ  to 
acknowledge  him  in  heaven  and  yet  refuses  to 
acknowledge  Christ  "before  men"  is  a  self- 
convicted  coward,  and  while  disobeying  his  Mas- 
ter's orders  has  no  right  to  expect  his  Master's 
blessing.  After  over  forty  years  of  pastoral  ob- 
servation we  have  come  to  the  conclusion  that 
every  day  spent  by  the  genuine  convert  outside 
of  the  church  of  Christ  is  almost  a  day  lost.  He 
loses  the  sense  of  responsibility  that  he  needs  to 
feel;  he  loses  the  opportunity  of  doing  good;  he 
loses  in  self-respect,  in  the  respect  of  others;  he 
loses  the  approbation  of  Him  who  has  so  impres- 
sively said,  "  Whosoever  is  ashamed  of  me  before 
men,  of  him  will  I  be  ashamed  when  I  shall 
come  in  my  own  glory."  When  God  gives  con- 
version he  demaitds  confession.  To  be  effective 
and  useful  this  must  be  prompt,  open,  hearty, 
and  decided. 

But  confession  does  not  end  with  the  public 
acknowledgment  of  Christ  before  the  church.     It 


SHOW  YOUR  colors!  35 

only  begins  there.  This  is  one  decisive  step,  to 
be  followed  by  a  thousand  other  steps  in  the 
same  direction.  We  do  know,  however,  of  many 
church  members  whose  single  solitary  act  of 
loyalty  to  Christ  was  their  standing  up  to  re- 
spond to  a  church  covenant  before  the  pulpit; 
from  that  moment  onward  all  that  the  church 
had  of  them  was  their  idle  names  on  the  roll. 
Like  too  many  of  the  boasted  recruits  in  new 
regiments,  they  enlisted,  drew  their  "bounty," 
and  then  "straightway  are  heard  of  no  more." 
In  the  campaign  for  Christ  and  the  truth  they 
never  answer  to  the  roll-call  of  duty.  It  is  very 
certain  that  their  names  will  not  be  called  when 
the  victorious  Immanuel  announces  the  rewards 
to  his  faithful  followers  on  "  the  sea  of  glass  like 
imto  pure  gold." 

We  are  all  guilty  of  too  much  time-serving, 
too  much  concealment  of  truth,  too  much  com- 
promise with  Christ's  enemies.  The  boldest  are 
not  bold  enough,  and  the  cowards  are  as  much 
despised  by  themselves  as  loathed  by  their  Mas- 
ter in  heaven.      When   will   we  learn   that  the 


36  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

only  course  for  a  Christian  is  to  "stand  up  for 
Jesus"?  Men  expect  it  of  us;  they  despise  us 
for  our  shamefacedness,  and  doubt  the  sincerity 
of  our  professions. 

"  Last  night,"  said  a  Christian  soldier  to  his 
chaplain,  "in  my  barrack  before  going  to  bed  I 
knelt  down  and  prayed,  when  suddenly  my  com- 
rades raised  a  loud  laugh  and  began  to  throw 
boots  and  clothes  at  me."  "Well,"  replied  the 
chaplain,  "suppose  you  defer  your  prayers  till 
after  you  retire,  and  then  silently  lift  up  your 
heart  to  God." 

Meeting  him  soon  after,  the  chaplain  said, 
"You  took  my  advice,  I  suppose.  How  did  it 
answer?"  "Sir,"  replied  the  soldier,  "I  did 
take  your  advice  for  two  or  three  evenings;  but 
I  began  to  think  it  looked  like  denying  my  Sa- 
viour; so  I  once  more  knelt  down  and  prayed  as 
at  first."  "  What  followed  ?"  "Why,  sir,  not 
one  of  them  laughs  now.  The  whole  fifteen  nozv 
line  el  down  too,  and  I  pray  with  them." 


TRAINING   CONVERTS.  37 


TRAINING  CONVERTS. 


A  VERY  large  proportion  of  members  in  our 
churches  count  for  very  little  except  upon  the 
muster-roll.  When  that  roll  is  called  for  practi- 
cal service  they  do  not  answer,  "Here!"  The 
lamentable  statistics  of  contributions — for  exam- 
ple, only  eighty  cents  annually  per  member  to 
the  great  work  of  Home  IMissions — show  how 
small  are  the  pecuniary  gifts  of  those  comatose 
Christians.  The  thin  attendance  at  prayer-meet- 
ings in  too  many  churches,  the  fewness  of  those 
who  take  part  in  them,  or  in  any  kind  of  personal 
effort  for  souls  and  the  spread  of  Christ's  king- 
dom, are  illustrations  of  the  same  fact.  A  larire 
portion  of  the  power  in  the  church  is  a  latent 
power.  The  stream  is  diverted  upon  the  water- 
wheels  of  the  world,  or  else  runs  to  waste,  less 
than  half  of  it  turned  upon  spiritual  machinery. 
One  reason,  among  many,  is  that  new  converts 


38  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

are  not  trained  into  Christian  activity  from  the 
start. 

Many  converts  to  Christ  are  still  in  the  morn- 
ing of  life,  although  they  may  have  outgrown 
the  Sunday-school.  Under  thirty  years  of  age 
the  habits  of  individuals  are  easily  moulded;  and 
during  the  thirty  years  after  that  they  ought  to 
be  set  to  work  for  their  Master.  The  true  time 
to  enlist  a  Christian  in  active  service  is  when  he 
enlists  in  the  visible  army  of  Christ  by  a  public 
confession  of  Christ.  If  a  new  convert  does  not 
open  his  lips  in  some  devotional  meeting  during 
the  first  thirty  days,  he  is  apt  to  remain  tongue- 
tied  for  life.  If  he  or  she  is  not  called  into  some 
sort  of  service,  then  doth  he  or  she  become  a 
drone  in  the  hive.  One  of  the  most  effectual 
methods  that  I  know  of  for  training  new  converts 
is  by  the  agency  of  a  "  Young  People's  Associa- 
tion," organized  in  the  church  and  under  the 
oversight  of  the  pastor.  There  has  been  such  an 
association  in  the  church  which  I  have  the  honor 
to  serve  for  about  twenty-two  years.  Sometimes 
its  membership  runs  as  high  as  seven  hundred. 


TRAINING   CONVERTS.  39 

It  embraces  three  classes  of  members — active, 
associate,  and  honorary.  Any  member  of  our 
church  between  the  ages  of  fifteen  and  forty-five 
may  be  chosen  an  "  active  "  member  of  the  asso- 
ciation. Any  person  of  good  moral  character 
may  become  an  associate  member,  entitled  to  all 
privileges  except  that  of  holding  office.  The  fee 
of  membership  is  fifty  cents  annually,  and  ten 
dollars  secures  a  membership  for  life.  The  ob- 
jects of  the  Association  are  to  hold  weekly  devo- 
tional meetings,  to  promote  social  intercourse,  to 
visit  the  sick,  to  search  out  and  bring  in  young 
people,  to  labor  for  their  conversion,  and  to  do 
whatever  will  develop  the  spiritual  life  of  new 
converts.  There  is  a  "Devotional  Committee," 
which  has  charge  of  the  Monday  evening  meet- 
ing, which  is  held  in  the  houses  of  the  congrega- 
tion. This  committee  must  select  the  house, 
have  it  announced  from  the  pulpit,  and  see  to  it 
that  the  camp-stools  and  hymu-books  are  taken 
to  the  said  house  in  season. 

That  meeting  lasts  just  one  hour.  The  leader 
of  the  service  is  allowed  to  occupy  fifteen  min- 


40  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

utes  in  opening  the  exercises.  As  soon  as  possi- 
ble after  a  person  is  converted  he  is  requested  to 
take  charge  of  the  meeting;  this  breaks  him  into 
the  harness  at  once.  No  one  is  allowed  to  oc- 
cupy more  than  three  minutes  in  an  address  or 
a  prayer.  At  the  close  of  the  service  a  half-hour 
is  spent  in  giving  introductions  and  in  social 
intercourse.  In  pleasant  weather  we  expect  the 
house  to  be  crowded;  but  we  have  seldom  had 
the  spiritual  thermometer  so  high  as  to  pack  a 
house  on  a  stormy  evening.  Only  a  pleasure- 
party  or  a  political  caucus  can  do  that. 

In  these  social  meetings  all  are  made  wel- 
come, and  new  converts  are  encouraged  to  take 
part.  There  is  a  freedom  felt  in  a  private  house 
which  cannot  be  felt  by  a  beginner  in  the  pub- 
lic lecture-room  of  the  church.  Most  persons  of 
modesty  and  common  sense  are  apt  to  feel  a  cer- 
tain diffidence  in  speaking  or  praying  for  the 
first  time.  Some  of  our  most  effective  speakers 
made  an  unpromising  start  and  had  one  or  two 
break-downs  before  they  could,  as  the  oarsmen 
say,  ''pull  themselves  together."      But  it  is  not 


TRAINING   CONVERTS.  4I 

simply  a  public  speaking  and  praying  service 
into  which  the  Association  trains  its  members. 
They  are  organized  for  various  kinds  of  work. 
There  is  a  Visiting  Committee  to  look  after  the 
sick.  There  is  an  Entertainment  Committee 
who  arrange  music,  readings,  and  other  pleasant 
features  for  a  monthly  sociable — to  wdiich  the 
whole  congregation  are  invited.  The  monthly 
entertainments  commonly  crowd  the  lecture- 
room  or  the  Sabbath-school  hall.  There  is  a 
Temperance  Committee  which  oversees  that 
branch  of  Christian  labor.  Last  eveninor  a  meet- 
ing  of  our  young  ladies  who  are  interested  in  this 
blessed  work  w^as  very  largely  attended.  For 
years  we  had  an  efficient  corps  of  tract-distribu- 
ters in  the  Association;  but  the  removal  from 
town  of  its  moving  spirits  has  left  this  depart- 
ment rather  feeble  at  present.  There  is  also  a 
"Relief  Committee"  for  cases  of  poverty,  and 
another  one  which  provides  flowers  every  Sab- 
bath for  the  pulpit  and  then  sends  them  to  the 
rooms  of  the  sick. 

We  have  entered  more  into  the  details  of  this 

6 


42  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

Association  because  it  has  yielded  such  precious 
spiritual  fruits.  Its  graduates  are  all  over  the 
West  as  active  Christians  ;  some  of  them  have 
entered  the  gospel  ministry.  It  has  been  a  train- 
ing-scJiool  for  converts^  and  as  such  deserves  a 
place  beside  the  Sabbath-school  in  the  affections 
and  prayers  of  the  church.  I  should  almost  as 
soon  think  of  conductinof  a  church  without  the 
regular  officers  as  without  this  educational  insti- 
tution for  new-born  souls.  It  helps  to  solve  sev- 
eral such  questions  as — how  to  develop  the  lay- 
element  ;  how  to  cultivate  social  intercourse  ; 
how  to  save  the  young  for  Christ  and  keep  them 
out  of  the  clutch  of  the  devil.  In  the  apostolic 
churches  the  new  material  was  put  to  immediate 
use.  That  was  one  reason  why  the  word  grew 
mightily  and  prevailed.  If  the  machinery  in 
those  days  was  simpler  than  now,  still  there 
was  organized  effort,  and  that  was  built  on  per- 
sonal consecration  to  Christ.  Give  us  but  that,  and 
we  shall  have  few  drones  in  the  hive.  Conver- 
sion without  consecration  sio:nifies  birth  without 
growth — blossoms  without  fruit. 


TRAINING    CONVERTS.  43 

We  have  drawn  upon  our  personal  observa- 
tion in  this  outline  of  the  work  done  by  the 
Young  People's  Association  of  the  Lafayette 
Avenue  Church;  but  the  same  style  of  work  is 
beingr  done  in  manv  hundreds  of  churches  bv  the 
admirable  "Societies  of  Christian  Endeavor." 
Every  new  convert  should  enroll  himself  or  her- 
self in  such  a  societv  if  it  is  within  reach.  Wher- 
ever  the  circumstances  permit  we  also  cordially 
commend  the  "  YounQf  Men's  Christian  Associa- 
tion  "  as  a  most  excellent  training-school  in  the 
service  of  Christ.  There  need  be  no  clash,  or  col- 
lision between  the  "  Y.  M.  C.  A."  and  the  or- 
ganization in  each  individual  church. 


44  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


SPIRITUAL  HEALTH. 


"One  hundred  able-bodied  men  wanted," 
was  the  announcement  we  lately  saw  at  the  head 
of  an  advertisement  for  recruits  in  the  Govern- 
ment service.  No  invalids  could  pass  muster. 
It  was  duty  on  deck  and  among  the  rigging  that 
was  required,  and  not  a  berth  in  the  hospital. 
As  we  ministers  are  recruiting-officers  for  the 
Kine,  it  occurred  to  us  that  an  announcement 
would  not  be  out  of  place  on  the  doors  of  the 
churches,  "A  hundred  able-hearted  and  able- 
handed  men  and  women  wanted  for  duty." 
There  are  quite  enough  now  who  never  answer 
to  roll-call,  or  are  stowed  away  in  the  berths  of 
the  sick  and  sleeping.  The  essentials  demanded 
for  eood  service  are  these  four:  the  Christians 
needed  by  the  King  should  be  prayerful  (i.  e., 
full  of  praying  without  ceasing),  patient,  per- 
severing,   and    powerful    with    the    indwelling 


SPIRITUAL   HEALTH.  45 

Spirit.     These  four  P's   constitute  the   healthy 
Christian.  _ 

Such  God  commands  every  redeemed  and  re- 
newed soul  to  be.  His  injunction  is,  "Be  ye 
holy."  Holiness  signifies  health  of  heart  and 
daily  life.  It  is  equivalent  to  the  Saxon  word 
wJiolth^  and  therefore  to  be  holy  is  to  be  healed 
from  the  deadly  disease  of  sin  and  to  be  luJiole 
in  the  inner  man.  Regeneration  is  the  recovery 
from  the  only  disease  which  can  cast  both  body 
and  soul  into  hell.  There  are  several  character- 
istics of  this  healed  or  renewed  state.  One  is  a 
faith  which  can  overcome  the  world  and  the 
powers  of  darkness.  A  second  is  a  good  con- 
science—  a  conscience  illuminated  by  God's 
Word,  kept  sweet  and  wholesome  by  prayer,  a 
conscience  alert  as  the  needle  to  the  magnetic 
pole,  and  one  that  is  a  comfort  to  its  owner,  and 
not  a  tormentor.  Just  what  a  disordered  liver  is 
to  the  body  is  a  bad  conscience  to  the  soul. 
One  chief  cause  of  the  spiritual  dyspepsia  which 
makes  so  many  professors  of  religion  wretched 
and  worthless  is  an  ill-conditioned  conscience. 


46  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

A  third  evidence  of  soul-health  is  a  strong 
appetite  for  the  Word  and  for  work.  There  is 
a  hunger  for  the  manna  from  heaven,  and  no 
lusting  for  the  flesh-pots  of  the  world.  It  is  not 
the  confectionery  of  fiction  or  the  "mixed  wine'* 
of  sensual  amusements,  or  even  the  spiced  stim- 
ulants of  sensational  sermons,  that  such  a  soul 
hungers  for,  but  for  the  strong  meat  and  the 
honeycomb  of  the  inspired  Word.  An  appetite 
for  Bible-diet  on  the  Sabbath  and  Bible-duties 
all  through  the  week  keeps  a  Christian  athletic. 
He  can  mount  up  with  an  undipped  wing,  as 
well  as  run  with  an  unwearied  foot.  You  never 
find  such  Christians  hobblino^  on  crutches  or 
with  limbs  bandaged  from  a  bad  fall. 

Since  spiritual  sickness  is  the  fruit  of  sin, 
and  spiritual  health  is  both  possible  and  obliga- 
tory upon  every  Christian,  how  shall  the  in- 
valids be  recovered?  "I  will  restore  health 
unto  thee,  saith  the  Lord."  God  works  cures 
not  by  miracles,  but  by  means  and  by  medi- 
cines. One  of  these  is  the  purgative  of  truth 
faithfullv  administered.     Finnev  understood  how 


SPIRITUAL    HEALTH.  47 

to  apply  this  heroic  treatment;  but  with  some 
pulpit-practitioners  we  fear  that  it  is  a  lost  art. 
Ministers  ouf^ht  to  read  his  "Lectures  on  Re- 
vivals"  at  least  once  every  year.  Our  Heavenly 
Father  in  his  restoring  processes  often  employs 
the  sharp  surgery  of  trials^  and  He  always  knows 
where  to  apply  the  lancet.  Many  a  chastised 
Christian,  as  the  bad  blood  was  drawn  from  him, 
has  cried  out,  "Thy  hand  presseth  me  sore!" 
and  the  answer  has  been,  "I  wound  that  I  may 
make  whole;  I  can  restore  unto  thee  the  joys  of 
salvation." 

Christ  Jesus  is  the  great  health-giver  and 
health-preserver.  Do  we  often  enough  take  in 
the  full  scope  of  that  wonderful  expression,  "the 
Sun  of  Righteousness  shall  arise  with  healing  in 
his  wings"  ?  There  is  hygienic  power  in  phys- 
ical sunshine;  it  brings  not  only  light  and  heat, 
but  health.  It  would  bring  quick  recovery  for 
many  an  enfeebled  and  diseased  soul  to  come 
back  into  the  lio;ht  of  Christ's  countenance.  A 
great  deal  of  spiritual  sickness  springs  from  bad 
atmosphere ;    and    the    heavenly   winds   of   the 


48  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

divine  Spirit  alone  can  sweep  away  this  mala- 
ria. With  the  powerful  breath  of  the  Holy 
Spirit  comes  a  new  and  purified  and  bracing  at- 
mosphere. We  remember  addressing  a  crowded 
audience  once  in  a  country  schoolhouse  on  a 
winter  night,  and  the  air  became  so  foul  that  the 
candles  went  almost  out.  "  Please  to  open  that 
door. ' ' 

The  moment  that  the  opened  door  let  in  the 
oxygen  of  the  wintry  air,  every  candle  flamed 
up  immediately.  Perhaps  one  reason  wdiy  the 
lights  are  so  deplorably  low,  and  almost  gone 
out,  in  too  many  churches,  is  that  the  atmos- 
phere has  become  heavy  with  w^orldliness  and 
unbelief  and  indifference  to  the  salvation  of  sin- 
ners. Oh,  what  a  glorious  oxygen  would  pour 
into  our  churches  and  prayer-meetings  and 
hearts  if  the  Holy  Spirit  should  come  like  a 
mighty  rushing  wind,  purifying,  arousing,  and^ 
quickening  unto  the  very  life  of  God  in  the  soul ! 
This  would  be  a  revival^  a  living  again,  a  recon- 
version from  dead  and  decaying  works  into  the 
muscle  and  the  glow  of  a  vigorous  health. 


SPIRITUAL   IIKALTII.  49 

Such  recovery  is  not  to  be  reached  by  a 
wholesale  process ;  it  must  be  the  individual 
repentance  and  restoration  of  each  invalid  for 
himself  or  herself.  God  says  to  each  one,  "Re- 
turn unto  me,  and  I  will  heal  thy  backslidings." 
The  lepers  that  came  to  Christ  were  not  afraid 
to  show  their  loathsome  diseases  right  before  the 
very  face  of  the  compassionate  Son  of  God.  We 
must  not  be  gingerly  in  our  confessions,  or  seek 
to  cover  our  sins  with  bandages  or  pull  a  plaster 
of  apology  over  the  leprous  spots.  "Wash  me 
thoroughly  from  my  iniquities"  is  the  true  prayer 
of  penitence.  This  means  (as  Maclaren  has  well 
put  it),  "Wash  me,  beat  me,  tread  me  down, 
hammer  me  with  mallets,  rub  me  with  caustic 
nitre;  do  anything,  anything  with  me,  if  only 
those  foul  spots  melt  away  from  the  texture  of 
mv  soul." 

Such  penitence,  such  prayer,  brings  pardon. 
Not  only  pardon  for  the  past,  but  purity  and 
peace  with  God,  and  power.  Then  the  penitent 
soul  can  cry,  "Restore  unto  me  the  joys  of  thy 
salvation,"  and  the  joys  will  pour  in  like  fresh, 

Newly  Enlistcl.  7 


50  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

full  streams  after  a  drought.  A  church  thus 
purified  aud  empowered  from  heaven  will  teach 
transgressors  God's  ways,  and  once  more  sinners 
will  be  converted  unto  Him.  Brethren,  this  is 
the  revival  we  need;  this  we  can  have  if  we  take 
God's  plan  to  secure  it.  He  is  the  almighty 
and  the  all-loving  Healer.  Hope  ye  in  God; 
and  we  may  yet  praise  Him  who  is  the  health  of 
our  countenance  and  our  God. 


SOUL-FOOD. 


51 


SOUL-FOOD. 


Every  living  organism  feeds  on  something 
outside  of  itself  Even  the  trees  would  wither 
and  die  if  they  could  not  draw  sustenance  out  of 
the  air  and  sap  out  of  the  earth.  The  human 
soul  is  a  feeding  creature.  "  Hearken  diligently 
unto  Me,  and  eat  ye  that  which  is  good,  and  let 
your  soul  delight  itself  in  fatness."  A  still  more 
remarkable  expression  occurs  in  the  fifteenth 
chapter  of  Jeremiah:  "Thy  words  were  found, 
and  I  did  eat  them.^''  We  often  employ  the  same 
figure  of  speech.  A  ship-master,  hungry  for 
tidings  from  home,  lands  at  a  port  where  he  finds 
a  letter  from  his  wife.  It  is  only  so  much  paper 
and  ink,  but  by  a  sort  of  magical  process  it  not 
only  talks  to  him,  but  transports  the  whole 
home-circle  before  his  loncjing:  eves,  and  he  is 
ready  to  say  to  his  far-away  wife,  "Thy  letter 
was  found,  and  I  devoured  it." 


52  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

So  does  the  hungry  heart  of  a  Christian  de- 
vour the  words  of  Him  who  is  the  Bread  of  Life. 
When  first  awakened  to  a  sense  of  sin,  his  mind 
opened  its  mouth  and  swallowed  eagerly  the  in- 
vitation, Come  unto  Me,  and  I  will  give  you  rest. 
The  truth  thus  taken  and  digested  became  a 
part  of  the  fibre  of  the  new  man  in  Christ  Jesus. 
One  reason  why  multitudes  remain  impenitent 
and  w^ithout  any  hope  for  eternity  is  that  they 
revolt  at  unpalatable  truths.  When  their  utter 
depravity  is  set  before  them,  and  their  condemna- 
tion already  before  a  holy  God  and  the  reality  of 
a  "  wrath  to  come,"  they  revolt,  and  say,  ''  I  can- 
not swallow  that."  They  must  take  God's  bread 
or  starve,  for  he  will  not  change  it  to  suit  their 
sinful  tastes;  they  must  swallow  pungent  truths 
or  die,  for  God  will  not  sweeten  a  bitter  medicine 
to  please  a  sinful  palate.  We  ministers  or  Sab- 
bath-school teachers  commit  a  fatal  mistake 
when  we  dilute  or  adulterate  any  bitter  doses 
which  God  puts  into  our  hands  as  spiritual  phy- 
sicians. When  the  faithful,  searching,  purging 
truths  have  been  swallowed  and  have  done  their 


SOUL- FOOD.  53 

blessed  work,  the  healed  heart  has  been  ready  to 
exclaim,  "  I  found  Thy  words,  and  did  eat  them, 
and  they  have  been  to  me  the  joy  and  rejoicing 
of  my  heart!" 

What  delicious  feeding  there  is  on  the  Prom- 
ises! The  soul  delio:hts  itself  with  them  as  with 
marrow  and  fatness.  There  is  no  end  to  the  hon- 
ey-comb that  distils  from  the  fourteenth  chapter 
of  John.  We  can  feed  more  than  five  thousand, 
besides  the  women  and  children,  with  the  sin- 
gle big  loaf — "This  is  the  promise  which  He 
hath  promised  us,  even  eternal  life."  There  was 
a  great  weight  of  Christian  experience  in  the 
homely  vernacular  of  Uncle  Johnson,  the  vet- 
eran negro,  when  he  said  to  his  pastor,  "  I 's 
tinking  dat  if  de  crumbs  of  joy  dat  fall  from  de 
]\Iassa's  table  in  dis  world  am  so  good,  what  will 
de  great  loaf  in  glory  be?  I  wants  to  get  hold 
ob  de  full  dish.  O  massa,  ef  you  gets  home  afore 
I  do,  tell  'em  to  keep  de  table  standin',  for  old 
Johnson  is  on  his  way  and  is  bound  to  be  dere." 

There  is  a  sufficient  reason  why  so  many 
members  of  our  churches  are  so  pitiably  weak, 


54  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

either  to  work  or  to  resist  temptation.  Starva- 
tion has  reduced  them  to  living  skeletons.  A 
Christian  soul  cannot  keep  fat  and  strong  on 
daily  newspapers  or  on  the  best  of  secular  litera- 
ture. Such  self-weakening  is  wickedness.  Food 
is  fuel  to  the  body,  repairing  what  is  burnt  away 
by  various  vital  processes.  How  can  a  soul  be 
either  fed  or  warmed  that  seldom  touches  the 
Bread  of  Life  ?  All  the  most  growing  Christians 
are  large  feeders  on  the  Word  of  God. 

The  breakfast  which  I  ate  this  morninof  is 
driving  ray  pen  now  over  this  sheet  of  paper; 
the  same  meal  sent  hundreds  of  my  flock  across 
the  ferry,  and  is  moving:  hands  and  feet  and 
brains  for  the  whole  day.  The  food  put  in  comes 
out  in  physical  activities.  In  like  manner  a  nu- 
tritious sermon  may  be  roast  beef  to  a  toiling  and 
tempted  soul  for  the  whole  w^eek;  in  the  strength 
of  that  strong  meat  he  goes  many  days.  God 
only  knows  how  many  slips,  how  many  weak 
acts  and  utterances,  and  how  many  falls,  have 
overtaken  professed  Christians  during  the  week 
simply  because  they  neglected  to  eat  their  spirit- 


sou  I.- FOOD.  ^2 

ual  rations  on  the  previous  Sabbath.  They  lost 
the  very  truths  and  the  conscience-strength  they 
needed;  their  sin  found  them  out. 

The  words  of  Jesus,  his  whole  code  of  duty,  if 
eaten  and  digested  and  assimilated,  come  out  in 
the  daily  conduct.  Every  act  of  unselfish  service 
to  others,  every  triumph  over  temptation,  every 
word  spoken  for  the  blaster,  every  submissive  en- 
durance of  heavy  trial,  every  push  upward  to- 
wards a  higher  degree  of  holiness,  is  the  out- 
come of  Christ's  commandments  and  promises, 
wrought  into  the  fibre  of  the  daily  life.  Paul 
realized  the  vital  importance  of  this  soul-food 
when  he  exhorted  his  brethren  to  "  let  the  words 
of  Christ  dwell  in  you  (i.  e. ,  stay  in  you  as  a 
strengthener)  abundantly.'*  God's  people  can- 
not live  on  husks.  An  ill-fed  army  must  either 
flee  or  surrender.  Blessed  be  the  hunger  that 
sends  our  souls  to  Christ  ! 


56  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


WHERE  IS  YOUR  PI.ACE? 


A  PLACE  for  every  man,  and  every  man  in 
liis  place!  This  motto  is  as  good  for  Christ's 
church  as  it  was  for  the  army  during  the  war. 
But  what  is  every  Christian's  right  place? 

We  answer  that  it  is  the  one  for  which  God 
made  him  and  for  which  the  Holy  Spirit  con- 
verted him.  To  mistake  it  is  a  sad  blunder;  to 
desert  it  is  a  disgrace.  The  Bible  acknowledges 
that  God  made  his  servants  for  some  special 
*' niche,"  for  it  says,  ''  Having  then  gifts  differ- 
ing according  to  the  grace  that  is  given  us,  let  us 
wait  on  our  ministering;  or  he  that  teacheth,  on 
teaching;  or  he  that  exhorteth,  on  exhortation; 
he  that  giveth,  let  him  do  it  with  simplicity;  he 
that  ruleth,  with  diligence;  he  that  showeth 
mercy,  with  cheerfulness."  The  principle  here 
laid  down  is  that  every  man  or  woman  who  loves 
Jesus  should  select  and  should  fill  that  post  of 


WHERE    IS  YOUR   PLACE?  57 

duty  for  which  his  or  her  gifts  have  fitted  them. 
But  "let  no  man  neglect  the  gift  that  is  in 
him." 

Some  men — like  Spurgeon  and  Newman  Hall 
and  Bishop  Simpson — were  created  for  the  pul- 
pit. God  gave  them  clear  heads,  warm  hearts, 
strong  lungs  and  eloquent  tongues,  and  a  hunger 
for  saving  souls.  To  possess  such  gifts  is  a  clear 
call  to  the  ministry.  And  thousands  of  humbler 
preachers  who  cannot  attract  Spurgeon' s  crow^ds 
are  yet  as  clearly  called  to  the  ministry  of  the 
Word  as  the  London  Boanerges  was  himself. 
But  the  vainglorious  creature  who  cannot  attract 
an  audience  except  by  sensational  "clap-trap" 
or  by  Barnumish  advertisements  was  certainly 
never  called  of  God  to  the  sacred  ministry.  He 
may  draw  auditors,  but  he  commonly  draws 
them  away  from  places  where  they  w^ould  be 
more  profited. 

Suppose  a  man  feels  convinced,  after  deep 
prayer  and  self-examination,  that  God  has  not 
called  him  to  the  pulpit;  what  then?  ]\Iust 
he  be  silent?     Are  all  the  speaking  gifts  of  the 


58  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

pious  lawyer  or  doctor  or  merchant  or  mechanic 
to  run  to  waste?  No,  verily!  Let  such  pro- 
claim the  glad  tidings  of  Christ  and  the  story  of 
their  own  Christian  experience  in  the  prayer- 
meetinof  or  the  mission-school  or  the  cottag^e  con- 
ference-meeting,  or  wherever  they  can  find  souls 
to  plead  with.  How  successful  this  lay -labor 
may  be  made,  let  such  men  as  Harlan  Page  and 
Richard  Weaver  and  George  H.  Stuart  and  D. 
L.  Moody  and  John  Wanamaker  bear  witness. 
Let  the  powerful  lay-preaching  heard  every  day 
in  "Fulton  Street"  answer.  Some  of  the  best 
discourses  I  have  ever  heard  were  but  five  or  ten 
minutes  long  and  were  delivered  in  my  own 
prayer-meeting.  Christian  lawyers  ought  to  do 
more  of  this  tongue-work.  As  a  class  they  are 
too  silent  in  our  meetings  and  Sunday-schools. 
God  is  opening  a  wide  field  for  laymen  to  act  on 
"picket-duty"  and  as  skirmishers  and  sharp- 
shooters in  the  spiritual  warfare. 

What  our  churches  most  need  (next  to  the 
baptism  of  the  Holy  Ghost)  is  the  development 
of  all  the  members.     So  much  is  thrown  upon 


WHKRE    IS   YOUR  PLACK  ?  59 

the  ministry  that  some  of  us  can  hardly  catch  a 
spare  hour  for  our  own  family  and  fireside.  A 
city  pastor  is  often  expected  to  prepare  three  ser- 
mons or  lectures,  to  visit  the  flock,  to  see  the 
sick,  to  bury  the  dead,  and  to  act  on  a  dozen 
committees  and  to  make  two  or  three  speeches, 
all  in  a  single  week!     The  church  becomes  Dr. 

T 's   church  or   Mr.   B 's  church  or  Dr. 

C 's   church,   or  some   other   man's  church, 

instead  of  being  the  people's  church,  with  some 
gifted  man  as  its  overseer  and  pastor. 

Now  I  love  to  work  exceedingly,  but  not  one 
whit  more  than  I  love  to  see  my  congregation 
work.  And  no  man  in  my  flock  has  any  more 
right  to  turn  his  spiritual  work  over  upon  me 
than  he  has  a  right  to  send  me  to  market  for  him 
or  to  cook  or  eat  his  dinner  for  him.  He  needs 
his  work  as  much  as  I  need  mine.  In  revival 
times  the  whole  church  is  alive  and  busy.  But 
where  and  when  did  the  Master  ever  give  a 
' '  furlough  ' '  to  three-fourths  of  our  people  to 
quit  the  ranks  just  as  soon  as  a  revival  campaign 
is  over  ? 


6o  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

A  Christian  who  is  keen  for  work  will  soon 
find  his  place.  If  he  is  "apt  to  teach,"  he  or 
she  will  soon  gather  the  Sabbath-school  class, 
and  will  be  there,  Bible  in  hand,  every  Sunday, 
even  though  the  rain  is  pattering  on  the  pave- 
ments. Commend  me  to  the  teacher  who  wears 
a  "waterproof"  and  always  consults  conscience 
sooner  than  the  barometer. 

Whoever  has  the  gift  of  song  should  join 
God's  great  choir  and  sing  at  every  religious  ser- 
vice. The  owner  of  a  good  voice  must  give 
account  for  that  voice  at  the  day  of  judgment. 
We  never  shall  have  genuine  congregational 
singing  until  every  redeemed  child  of  Christ 
sings  from  duty  and  consecrates  the  gift  of  music 
to  the  Lord.  Those  who  expect  to  sing  in 
heaven  had  better  practise  here. 

Tract  distribution  is  going  too  much  out  of 
fashion.  It  is  a  blessed  and  heaven-honored 
agency  for  doing  good.  Every  one  who  has 
some  spare  time  and  a  tongue  and  a  little  pious 
tact  can  go  out  with  a  bundle  of  tracts  to  the 
abodes  of  ignorance  and  irreligion. 


WHERE    IS   YOUR    PLACE?  6r 

Those  who  cannot  exhort  or  teach  in  a  Sun- 
day-school or  distribute  tracts,  can  at  least  live 
for  Jesus  at  home  and  come  and  join  in  the  pray- 
ers of  the  prayer-meeting.  The  oldest,  the  tim- 
idest,  the  least  gifted,  can  do  surely  as  much  as 
this.  Every  one  too  can  give  something  when 
the  contribution-box  is  passed.  The  gift  of  a 
"cup  of  cold  water"  in  Christ's  name  has  its 
reward.  Every  one  whom  Jesus  saves  has  a 
place  assigned  to  him  in  the  vineyard.  An  idle 
Christian  is  a  monster! 

Friend,  havejw^  found  your  place? 


62  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


CONSCIENCE  IN  REIvIGION. 


Men  of  the  world  are  ready  to  admit  the 
genuineness  of  the  piety  which  speaks  the  truth 
and  pays  its  honest  debts.  But  when  a  man  is 
fervid  in  the  prayer-meeting  and  frigidly  selfish 
outside  of  the  meeting — when  he  can  sing  a 
psalm  or  swindle  a  neighbor  in  a  bargain  with 
the  same  smooth  tongue — he  must  expect  to  be 
held  "at  a  discount."  This  is  but  right.  The 
world  is  warranted  in  lookinof  for  a  hig^h  stand- 
ard  of  character  and  conduct  from  those  who 
profess  to  follow  the  pure  and  holy  Jesus.  Chris- 
tians must  not  find  fault  with  the  unconverted 
who  find  fault  with  them  for  any  inconsistencies 
of  conduct.  It  is  a  tribute  of  solid  respect  for 
Christianity  that  is  paid  to  it  by  those  who  ex- 
pect its  professors  to  be  upright  and  conscien- 
tious. "By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them," 
said  the  Master.      Jesus  expects  and  demands 


CONSCIENCE   IN    RELIGION.  63 

that  his  followers  shall  live  up  to  the  clear  bright 
standard  of  his  Word. 

To  do  this  the  conscience  must  be  well  edu- 
cated and  thoroughly  obeyed.  A  conscience  is 
to  its  owner  what  a  compass  is  to  an  ocean 
steamer.  Some  Christians'  moral  compasses  are 
so  constantly  deflected  by  the  presence  of  dis- 
turbing elements  in  the  heart  that  they  "steer 
wild,"  and  often  run  on  rocks.  A  conscience 
that  does  not  point  squarely  and  unvaryingly 
towards  the  pole-star  of  God's  truth  is  a  danger- 
ous one  to  steer  the  life  by.  Bible-study  is 
necessary  to  keep  our  consciences  w^ell  adjusted. 
A  careful  man  often  sets  his  watch  by  the  sun. 
A  careful  Christian  will  be  constantly  setting  his 
conscience  by  the  Bible.  Then  he  can  go  by  it 
without  any  fear  of  going  astray.  Paul  makes 
much,  but  not  too  much,  of  having  ''a  good  con- 
science." The  characteristics  of  a  good  con- 
science are  quick  discernment  of  sin  even  when 
it  wears  a  white  raiment,  and  a  loud  voice  to 
warn  its  possessor  when  sin  is  getting  too  near. 
The  office  of  the  conscience  is  to  detect  sin  and 


64  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

to  sound  the  alarm-bell;  then  it  becomes  the 
duty  of  the  will  to  seize  the  helm  and  steer  clear 
of  the  danger. 

What  a  beautifully-adjusted  conscience  Jo- 
seph had  !  Behind  the  captivating  smile  of  his 
wanton  temptress  he  detects  a  lurking  devil. 
There  is  no  spectator  present  except  One.  God 
is  in  that  chamber.  Joseph's  first  question  is 
not,  "How  shall  I  do  this  wrong  to  Potiphar?" 
but,  "  How  shall  I  do  this  great  wickedness  and 
sill  against  GodV  If  he  had  stopped  to  calculate 
the  chances  of  Potiphar' s  ever  finding  him  out, 
he  would  have  probably  wrecked  himself  on  the 
spot.  He  would  have  taken  hell-fire  into  his 
bosom,  as  every  young  man  or  woman  does  who 
commits  this  deadly  sin.  The  first  trait  of  a 
good  conscience  is  that  it  keeps  God  ever  before 
the  eye. 

But  of  what  value  is  the  best  instructed  con- 
science if  it  is  not  obeyed?  It  was  Joseph's  one 
decisive  act  of  obedience  to  conscience  which,  in 
the  end,  seated  him  on  the  Prime  Minister's 
throne  in  Egypt.     It  was  King  Saul's  constant 


CONSCIENCE    IN    RELIGION.  65 

tlirottling  of  his  own  conscience  that  made  him 
the  gloomy  wretch  that  he  was.  Paul  and  Silas 
made  the  old  Bastile  of  Philippi  ring  with  their 
joyful  hymns  at  midnight,  because  their  spirits 
were  in  sweet  harmony  with  God.  On  the 
other  hand,  it  was  Judas  Iscariot's  constant  fight 
aeainst  conscience  which  made  his  career  so 
wretched;  and  conscience  got  her  revenge  when 
she  twisted  a  suicide's  rope  around  his  worthless 
neck. 

If  the  secret  could  be  known,  this  is  the  rea- 
son why  many  Christian  professors  have  such  a 
sorry  time  of  it  and  know  nothing  of  joyous  sun- 
shine in  their  relio:ion.  Thev  are  at  war  with 
their  own  consciences.  They  slip  into  this  sin 
and  into  that,  resolving  every  time,  "  This  shall 
be  the  last."  But  it  is  not  the  last.  Every  vio- 
lence done  to  their  own  moral  sense  makes  them 
the  weaker  and  the  more  wretched.  Jesus  hides 
his  face  from  them.  They  take  but  little  com- 
fort in  any  religious  duty,  and  even  come  to  the 
communion  table  with  the  guilty  feeling  that 
they  are  ''dipping  the  hand  into  the  dish"  only 

Nawly  Knllated.  Q 


66  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

to  betray  their  Lord.  Unless  we  are  very  mucli 
mistaken,  the  real  reason  for  so  much  iinhappi- 
ness  in  the  tempers  and  the  lives  of  many  church 
members  is  that  their  consciences  are  ill  at  ease. 
Instead  of  being  a  trusted  guide  and  comforter, 
conscience  becomes  a  constant  tormentor.  Such 
a  wounded  spirit  who  can  bear  ? 

We  throw  out  these  few  hints  with  a  hope 
that  they  may  discover  to  certain  unhappy  and 
unhealthy  professors  the  real  reason  for  their 
dark  and  dreary  condition.  No  man  can  be 
happy  unless  he  sets  his  conscience  "in  time'* 
with  the  teachings  of  Christ  and  then  goes  by  it. 
He  will  then  find  himself  in  the  right  frame  for 
prayer.  He  will  enjoy  his  own  meditations  and 
his  communion  with  his  Master.  He  will  be  a 
living  witness  for  Christ,  never  a  stumbling- 
block  for  others.  His  life,  instead  of  being  a 
jangling  discord  of  inconsistencies,  will  be  a 
beautiful  harmony,  both  with  the  inner  voice  of 
a  pure  conscience  and  with  the  heavenly  voice 
of  his  beloved  Lord. 


THE    MIGHTY  WORD    "  NO. "  G-] 


THE  MIGHTY  WORD  "NO. 


As  we  walk  through  history  with  a  Diogenes' 
lantern  in  our  hand  it  is  always  pleasant  to  come 
upon  an  honest  and  a  noble  man.  Such  a  one 
was  Nehemiah,  the  rebuilder  and  reformer  of 
Jerusalem.  He  stands  in  the  Scripture  gallery 
of  characters  as  John  Hampden's  statue  stands 
in  the  line  of  illustrious  worthies  which  flanks 
the  entrance  to  the  British  Parliament. 

Nehemiah  was  a  man  who  understood  the 
power  of  that  prodigious  word  "^V^. "  When  he 
left  the  Persian  capital  at  Shushan,  he  went 
down  to  Jerusalem  determined  to  do  something 
to  relieve  his  suffering  people  there.  The  dear 
old  city  was  in  ruins.  The  Jews  who  had  re- 
turned thither  from  Babylon  were  oppressed  and 
plundered.  The  same  kind  of  abuses  had  crept 
in  which  have  disgraced  some  of  our  city  gov- 
ernments.    Nehemiah  lays  hold  of  practical  re- 


63  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

forms  with  an  unsparing  hand.  First  he  rouses 
the  people  with  a  trumpet-peal  to  "rise  up  and 
build"  the  ruined  walls.  Then  he  abolishes 
the  oppressive  taxation  and  the  desecrations  of 
the  Sabbath  and  the  temple.  His  predecessors 
in  office  had  been  receivinof  bis:  salaries  and  had 
allowed  their  underlings  to  fleece  the  people. 
Nehemiah  might  have  cited  their  example  as  a 
precedent  and  followed  in  their  wake — after  the 
manner  in  which  greedy  office-holders  or  plun- 
derers thrust  their  arms  into  public  treasuries  in 
our  day.  But  his  simple,  manly  statement  is, 
^^  So  did  not  /,  because  of  the  fear  of  God." 
Nobly  said!  We  wish  every  young  man  would 
write  those  sharp,  ringing  words  in  his  note-book 
and  determine  to  make  the  same  answer  when- 
ever he  is  tempted  to  do  a  selfish  or  a  wicked  act. 
The  most  tremendous  word  in  the  English 
language  is  the  short  yet  mighty  word  NO,  It 
has  been  the  pivot  on  which  innumerable  des- 
tinies have  turned  for  this  world  and  the  next. 
Spoken  at  the  right  moment,  it  has  saved  multi- 
tudes  from   disgrace,    from   ruin — yes,   from   an 


THE    MIGHTY   WORD    "  NO. "  69 

endless  hell!  The  splendid  career  of  Joseph 
turned  on  the  prompt  "No"  spoken  at  the  very 
nick  of  time.  Had  he  stopped  to  parley  with 
that  wanton  woman  (as  too  many  young  men 
stop  to  talk  with  a  bright-eyed  temptress  in  the 
street),  he  would  have  been  lost.  "How  can  I 
do  this  great  wickedness  and  sin  against  God?" 
saved  him  from  the  dizzy  edge  of  the  precipice. 
Daniel  might  easily  have  said  to  himself,  "Oh! 
everybody  about  the  court  here  drinks  wine  and 
lives  hi2:h  on  the  kino:'s  meat.  I  do  not  want  to 
be  thought  queer  or  puritanical."  He  dared  to 
be  singular.  At  the  end  of  two  weeks  he  had  a 
cleaner  countenance  and  a  sweeter  breath  than 
any  of  the  fast  livers  in  the  palace.  "So  did 
not  I"  was  the  motto  of  this  sturdy  vounof  tee- 
totaler.  If  he  had  yielded  to  the  current  of 
temptation  and  drifted  with  it,  we  never  should 
have  heard  of  such  a  man  as  Daniel. 

All  the  people  who  make  a  marked  success 
in  life  and  who  achieve  any  good  work  for  God 
are  the  people  who  are  not  ashamed  to  be  thought 
singular.      The  man  who  runs  with  the  crowd 


70  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

counts  for  nothino-.     It  is  when  he  turns  about 

o 

and  faces  the  multitude  who  are  rushins:  on  to 
do  the  evil  that  he  commands  every  eye.  Then 
by  a  bold  protest  he  may  "put  a  thousand  to 
flight."  So  the  young  monk,  Luther,  turned 
about  and  faced  the  hosts  of  the  Papacy.  His 
heroic  "No,"  nailed  up  on  the  church-door  of 
Wittenberg,  aroused  Europe  from  its  delusive 
and  deadly  dreams.  Standing  alone,  he  was  re- 
inforced by  the  Almighty. 

But  it  is  not  only  the  Luthers,  the  Wilber- 
forces,  the  John  Quincy  Adams  and  the  Sum- 
ners,  who  make  their  mark  by  being  singular. 
Every  young  man  and  woman,  in  their  humbler 
spheres,  must  come  out  and  be  separate  from  the 
company  of  sinners  if  they  w^ish  to  save  their 
characters  and  their  souls.  The  downward  pull 
of  sin  is  tremendous.  To  be  able  firmly  to  say, 
"Yet  will  not  I,"  requires  the  grace  from  above 
in  the  heart.  There  is  a  subtle  pull  also  in  the 
drift  of  simple  fashion  and  usage  which  carries 
away  every  one  who  is  not  well  established  on  a 
Bible  conscience.     Three-fourths  of  all  the  per- 


THE    MIGHTY  WORD    "  NO. "  7I 

sons  who  are  drowned  on  the  seashore  are  swept 
out  by  the  undertow.  This  is  the  secret  influence 
which  takes  hold  of  so  many  church  members 
and  carries  them  off  into  extravagant  living-,  into 
sinful  amusements  and  all  manner  of  worldly 
conformities.  Every  true  Christian  is  bound  to 
be  a  "nonconformist."  If  he  is  not  well  an- 
chored for  Christ  he  is  swept  away  by  the 
undertow.  The  bottom  of  the  great  deep  is 
strewed  with  such  backsliders. 

I  would  press  this  truth  home  upon  every 
young  man  who  reads  this  page:  your  salvation 
depends  on  your  ability  to  say  "No."  When 
your  principle  is  put  to  the  test,  ask  God's 
help  and  stand  firm.  The  messmates  of  Capt. 
Hedley  Vicars  sneered  at  him  as  a  "Methodist" 
and  a  fanatic.  He  put  his  Bible  on  the  table  in 
his  tent  and  then  stood  by  his  colors.  A  British 
soldier  once  told  me  that  Vicars  was  a  spiritual 
power  in  his  regiment.  We  had  just  such  Chris- 
tian heroes  in  our  armv  durinof  the  war. 

In  every  school  the  difference  is  clearly 
marked  between  the  boy  who  has  moral  pluck 


72  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

and  the  boy  who  is  mere  pulp.  The  one  knows 
how  to  say  "No."  The  other  is  so  afraid  of 
being  thought  "verdant"  that  he  soon  kills 
everything  pure  and  fresh  and  manly  in  his 
character  and  dries  up  into  a  premature  hard- 
ness of  heart.  Five  lads  were  once  o^athered 
into  a  room  at  boarding-school,  and  four  of  them 
engaged  in  a  game  of  cards,  which  was  expressly 
forbidden  by  the  rules.  One  of  the  players  was 
called  out.  The  three  said  to  the  quiet  lad  who 
was  busy  at  something  else,  "  Come,  take  a  hand 
with  us.  It  is  too  bad  to  have  the  game  broken 
up.  We  will  show  you  how  to  play.  Come 
along."  Now  that  was  a  turning-point  in  that 
lad's  life.  He  nobly  said,  "My  father  does  not 
wish  me  to  play  cards,  and  I  will  not  disobey 
him."  That  sentence  settled  the  matter  and 
settled  his  position  among  his  associates.  He 
was  the  boy  who  could  say  "No;"  and  thence- 
forward his  victories  were  made  easy  and  sure. 
I  well  remember  the  pressure  brought  to  bear  in 
college  upon  every  young  man  to  join  in  a  wine- 
drink  or   to  take   a   hand   in   some   contraband 


u 


THE    MIGHTY  WORD    ''NO."  73 

amusement.  Some  timber  got  well  seasoned. 
Some  of  the  other  sort  got  well  rotted  through 
sensuality  and  vice.  The  Nehemiahs  at  college 
have  been  Nehemiahs  ever  since.  The  boy  was 
father  of  the  man. 

The  only  motive  that  could  hold  back  the 
brave  "nonconformist"  at  Jerusalem  was  a 
godly  conscience.  "So  did  not  I,  because  of  the 
fear  of  God.''''  This  ever-present  principle  held 
him  firm  when  temptation  struck  him  as  the 
undercurrents  strike  against  the  keel.  What  the 
fear  of  God  did  for  Nehemiah,  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  will  do  for  you.  Christ  must  be  to  you  a 
pattern,  and  he  must  be  to  you  a  power.  It  is 
not  enough  to  believe  on  Jesus.  You  must 
"add  to  your  faith  courage'''*  (for  that  is  the  real 
meaning  of  the  word  translated  "  virtue"  in  our 
English  Bibles).  Then,  with  Christ  as  your 
model  and  Christ  as  your  inward  might,  you  will 
always  be  able  to  face  down  temptation  with  the 
iron  answer,  "  So  will  not  I." 


10 


74  NEWLY    ENLISTED. 


WATCH ! 


Some  bells  require  to  be  rung  very  often. 
As  there  is  constant  danger  from  certain  quar- 
ters, so  there  must  be  constant  warnings.  When 
our  Lord  repeats  an  admonition  five  times  over 
within  the  space  of  a  dozen  lines,  we  may  be 
quite  sure  that  he  regarded  it  as  one  of  supreme 
importance.  If  we  turn  to  the  thirteenth  chap- 
ter of  St.  Mark  we  discover  that  he  repeated  his 
injunction  to  watchfulness  several  times,  and 
then  closed  his  solemn  discourse  with  the  sharp 
stroke  on  the  alarm-bell,  ''  I  say  unto  you  all, 
watch  P ' 

Those  of  us  who  have  crossed  the  ocean  in  a 
steamship  have  always  gone  down  to  our  berths 
on  a  dark  nio^ht  with  a  more  comfortable  sense  of 
security  from  having  seen  a  "lookout"  posted 
on  the  ship's  bow.  It  is  the  business  of  that 
sailor  to  do  two  things,  viz.,  to  keep  wide  awake 


WATCH !  75 

and  to  report  instantly  any  glimpse  of  a  vessel 
or  an  iceberg  before  the  steamer's  path.  His  sig- 
nal is  the  security  of  every  soul  on  board.  Con- 
science is  the  lookout  on  the  bow  in  the  voyage 
of  life.  Some  people  with  sinful  infatuation  put 
conscience  at  the  stern;  it  may  utter  its  shriek  of 
remorse  when  the  sin  has  been  committed  and 
the  craft  has  struck  the  temptation  which  stove 
in  the  bow.  But  a  conscience  that  can  do  no 
more  than  moan  and  weep  over  sins  already  com- 
mitted is  of  little  worth;  for  even  that  process  is 
a  very  hardening  one  if  continued  very  long. 

I  have  observed  one  verv  undeniable  fact  in 
my  own  experience  and  in  my  observation  of 
others:  this  fact  is  that  everything  depends  on 
the  manner  in  which  first  sins  and  first  slips 
from  the  right  path  are  treated.  If  a  first  false 
step  is  promptly  met  by  a  thorough  repentance 
(as  in  the  case  of  Peter's  lie  in  Pilate's  Hall), 
then  the  mischief  ends.  The  soul  soon  recovers 
its  healthy  tone,  and  is  sometimes  the  wiser  and 
stronger  for  its  sad  experience.  But  if  the  first 
sin  is  followed  bv  a  second  and  a  third  and  a 


"jG  '  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

fourth  Y/ithout  any  contrition  before  God,  then 
conscience  soon  becomes  benumbed  and  power- 
less. In  time  it  is  seared  as  with  a  hot  iron. 
This  is  the  case  with  those  professed  Christians' 
who  lapse  into  sensual  vices  or  who  are  detected 
in  dishonest  defalcations  or  breaches  of  trust. 
All  these  men  could  have  been  easily  saved  rig^ht 
after  the  first  transgression;  but  when  that  was 
passed  without  compunction,  the  rapids  soon 
whirled  them  over  the  cataract.  It  is  astonish- 
ing to  observe  how  fast  sin  w^ll  anodyne  even  a 
Christian's  conscience. 

I.  It  is  the  office  of  a  healthy  conscience  not 
only  to  feel  keen  compunctions  when  wrong  has 
been  done,  but  to  detect  sin  in  advance  and  to 
sound  the  alarm  to  the  will,  which  has  its  hand 
on  the  helm.  The  truly  righteous  man  has  just 
as  many  temptations  floating  across  his  weather- 
bow  as  the  ungodly  or  the  backslider  has.  The 
difference  is  that  the  good  man's  conscience  de- 
tects the  dauQ^er  and  o:ives  the  sio-nal  to  the  will 
to  "steer  clear"  of  the  enemy.  Nay,  more; 
such  a  conscience  reports  the  danger  to  God  in 


WATCH  !  77 

prayer,  and  prompt  help  comes  from  heaven  to 
the  hand  on  the  hehn.  Wherefore  the  Master 
commands  us  to  both  "  watch  and  pray." 

2.  The  eye  must  be  open  towards  more  di- 
rections than  one.  While  a  sentinel  is  steadily 
looking  in  the  quarter  whence  he  expects  the 
enemy,  he  may  be  surprised  by  a  hand  laid  on 
his  shoulder  from  behind,  and  as  he  turns  around 
he  finds  the  foe  already  inside  the  ramparts!  He 
was  watching,  but  in  the  wrong  direction.  The 
devil  is  a  master  of  strategy.  He  always  finds 
out  what  gate  is  unguarded.  We  are  often 
shocked  at  the  fall  of  certain  much-trusted  per- 
sons into  heinous  sin;  but  not  more  than  the 
persons  are  themselves  when  they  get  their  eyes 
open  to  see  "whence  they  have  fallen."  The 
fatal  mistake  of  all  such  is  that  they  did  not 
keep  the  eyes  open  when  the  first  temptation 
came. 

3.  It  is  always  unwise  to  despise  an  enemy. 
We  never  know  how  many  guns  he  carries  un- 
til he  has  stolen  a  march  on  us  and  opens  fire. 
King    Edward's    garrison    fell   asleep   in    Edin- 


78  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

burgli  Castle  because  they  fancied  it  impregna- 
ble, and  despised  the  little  band  of  Scottish  sol- 
diers who  were  prowling  about  below  the  cliff. 
But  when  Randolph's  thirty  men  had  scaled  the 
precipice  and  leaped  the  walls,  they  w^ere  an 
overmatch  for  a  whole  garrison  who  were  asleep. 
The  simple  reason  why  the  Englishmen  did  not 
watch  that  night  was  that  they  did  not  regard  a 
score  or  tw^o  of  Highlanders  worth  the  watching. 
You  and  I,  dear  reader,  have  sometimes  caught 
our  hardest  blows  from  the  foes  whom  we  under- 
rated. Our  Lord  himself  did  not  underrate  the 
adversary  on  the  mount  of  temptation. 

4.  The  best  preventive  against  spiritual  as- 
sault and  overthrow  is  to  keep  up  constantly 
the  tone  and  fibre  of  a  truly  godly  character  by 
perpetual  living  close  with  God.  Multitudes 
live  as  if  there  were  no  God  in  the  broad  world.: 
They  act  as  if  the  Master  were  away  and  w^ould 
never  return.  "Blessed  is  that  servant  whom, 
when  the  Master  cometh,  he  finds  watching." 
It  is  not  only  the  enemy  whom  we  are  to  be 
looking  after,    but  our  Lord  himself.      I  never 


WATCH 


know  when  he  will  come  to  inspect  my  poor 
work,  or  when  he  will  come  with  the  orders  to 
drop  the  tools  into  the  grave.  But  a  perpetually 
vigilant  life  of  communion  and  Word-study  and 
holy  intercourse  with  him  will  keep  us  ever 
ready  for  "  the  last  call."  If  we  watch  thus  for 
him  he  will  be  ever  watching  over  tis^  and  then 
no  deadly  danger  shall  ever  befall  us.  It  ought 
to  be  not  only  a  duty  but  a  delight  to  be  watch- 
ful. For  there  are  so  many  mercies  constantly 
coming  in  sight,  so  many  opportunities  to  do 
good,  so  many  beautiful  views  of  God's  provi- 
dence, and  so  many  foretastes  of  heaven,  that  we 
lose  more  than  we  can  afford  to  if  we  fall  asleep 
on  our  homeward  way.  Can  we  "not  watch 
with  him  ojie  hour^^  ?     It  wdll  soon  be  over. 


So  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


THE  THOUGHT-MILL. 


Every  one  of  us  carries  in  his  or  her  person  a 
more  marvellous  apparatus  than  human  skill 
ever  conceived.  It  may  be  likened  to  a  mill 
which  is  running  without  any  pause,  unless  it  be 
during  the  unconscious  hours  of  sleep.  The 
Creator  who  fashioned  this  wonderful  mill  has 
provided  the  wheat  and  corn,  which,  if  well 
ground,  furnish  food  to  nourish  and  strengthen 
and  make  us  happy.  But  the  evil  one  is  ever 
on  the  watch  to  throw  in  worthless  chaff  or  poi- 
sonous tares,  which  if  ground  out  and  consumed 
are  fatal  to  health,  and  may  breed  disease  and 
death.  This  marvellous  mill  is  the  mind — fear- 
fully and  wonderfully  made.  Fill  it  with  the 
golden  wheat  of  pure  and  noble  thoughts,  and 
the  outcome  of  it  will  be  a  life  worth  carrying 
up  to  the  judgment-seat.  If  selfishness  and  Satan 
supply  the  grist,  then  the  outcome  will  be  mis- 


THE   THOUGHT-MILL.  8l 

chief,  misery,  and  perdition.  Keep  thy  heart- 
mill  with  all  diligence  and  watchfulness;  for  out 
of  it  are  the  issues  of  thy  life.  As  a  man  think- 
eth  in  his  heart,  so  is  he. 

A  person  is  known  by  the  company  he  keeps. 
So  the  thoughts  which  we  harbor  within  us,  and 
which  go  out  through  the  door  of  our  senses,  de- 
cide our  characters.  Let  me  but  know  what 
thoughts  occupy  most  your  mind  when  you  are 
alone ^  and  I  will  determine  what  manner  of  per- 
son you  are.  A  true  child  of  God  gives  house- 
room  to  pure,  quickening,  and  holy  thoughts; 
and  he  is  constantly  striving  to  bar  up  door  and 
windows  against  wicked  intruders.  He  watches 
his  heart-mill  lest  the  tempter  fill  it  with  net- 
tles or  clo":  it  with  o:ravel. 

Habitual  thinking  determines  whether  we  are 
Christ's  servants  or  Satan's  bond-slaves.  A  sen- 
sualist is  only  a  filthy  thinker.  The  walls  of  his 
mind  are  hung  around  with  lascivious  pictures; 
his  very  soul  becomes  a  brothel,  and  it  is  no  easy 
task  after  conversion  to  clean  this  house  of  un- 
clean imagery.     Do  a  man's  thoughts  run  every 

Kewly  En:ist«<l.  I  J 


82  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

day  upon  the  bottle?  Then  he  is  a  tippler  era 
sot.  A  miser's  mind  is  simply  a  money-bag. 
Does  another  man's  mind-mill  welcome  every 
golden  thought  from  God's  Word,  from  nature, 
and  from  the  workings  of  the  Holy  Spirit? 
Then  as  the  sweet,  nutritious  flour  pours  from 
between  the  rollers  of  a  Minnesota  grain-mill,  so 
do  inspiring  words  and  useful  plans  and  godly 
deeds  stream  out  from  that  Christian's  consecra- 
ted heart. 

One  of  the  highest  of  spiritual  luxuries  is  the 
companionship  of  pure,  exhilarating,  and  holy 
thoughts.  "I  thought  of  Jesus,"  said  devout 
Samuel  Rutherford,  "until  every  stone  in  the 
walls  of  my  prison  cell  shone  like  a  ruby."  We 
can  imagine  how  the  white  doves  fluttered  in 
and  lighted  on  John  Bunyan's  rude  table  in  his 
little  Bedford  gaol.  No  king  entertained  such 
royal  guests  as  the  poor  tinker,  when  he  set  open 
his  soul's  windows  towards  heaven. 

On  the  other  hand,  there  is  no  greater  tor- 
ment than  to  be  an  unclean  or  intensely  selfish 
or  profane  thinker.      Such  a  man  is  "grievously 


THE   TIIOUGHT-MILI..  83 

vexed  with  a  devil."  Out  of  siidi  hearts  pro- 
ceed evil  thoughts,  revenges,  cruelties,  fornica- 
tions, pride,  and  blasphemies.  What  a  hell  iu 
advance  to  have  such  a  heart !  To  carry  such  a 
heart  into  eternity,  and  to  be  locked  up  with  it 
there,  would  be  the  worm  that  dieth  not  and  the 
fire  that  is  never  quenched. 

Do  you  say  that  you  are  troubled  wath  im- 
pure and  defiling  thoughts?  Then  doii^t  think 
tJiem.  Are  vou  haunted  with  doubtino;-  and  dis- 
trusting  and  skeptical  thoughts  against  God  and 
his  promises?  Doiit  think  them.  Watch  the 
mill  and  fiiner  them  out.  All  thouQ:hts  have 
their  germs.  The  surest  way  to  kill  a  sin  is  to 
kill  it  in  the  ^%%.  At  the  very  moment  when 
a  wricked  thought  is  conceived,  or  is  thrust  into 
your  mind,  cj'iish  it !  The  little  serpent  will 
soon  become  the  anaconda  which  will  enfold 
you  and  strangle  you  like  the  fabled  Laocoon  in 
the  embrace  of  the  sea-monsters. 

How  important,  too,  is  it  to  nurse  into  vigor- 
ous life  every  germ  of  pure  and  heaven-inspired 
thought!      Your  whole  spiritual  life  will  depend 


84  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

Upon  the  reception  and  the  treatment  you  give 
to  every  good  idea  born  in  your  soul  or  awa- 
kened there  by  the  divine  Spirit.  To  smother  a 
good  thought  is  often  a  quenching  of  the  Holy 
Spirit;  it  has  cost  the  eternal  ruin  of  millions;  it 
may  rob  you  of  a  heavenly  hope. 

A  wonderful  apparatus  indeed  is  this  thought- 
mill  within  our  breasts.  We  cannot  guard  it  too 
carefully.  Christ  offers  us  his  precious  truth  to 
supply  it,  his  help  to  keep  it  clear  from  the 
wretched  garbaofe  which  the  evil  one  would 
fling  into  it,  and  his  propelling  power  to  drive  it 
with  all  useful  and  holy  activities.  The  hand  of 
Death  cannot  destroy  this  marvellous  piece  of 
God's  workmanship;  for  it  is  immortal.  Keep 
this  ever-busy,  ever-tempted,  ever-active  heart  of 
thine  with  ceaseless  care  and  with  prayer;  and  in 
heaven  you  will  find  that  the  pure  in  heart  shall 
see  God. 


SAFEGUARD   OF  TOTAL   ABSTINENCE.         85 


THE    SAFEGUARD    OF    TOTAL    ABSTI- 
NENCE. 

A  YOUNG  man  who  had  just  lost  an  excellent 
situation  by  a  two  days'  "spree"  came  into  my 
study  lately  and  said  to  me,  "  Doctor,  I  cannot 
understand  how  it  is  that  I  should  have  made 
such  a  fool  of  myself  and  thrown  away  my 
chance  for  a  living.  This  is  almost  killing  my 
little  wife."  I  replied  to  him,  "There  is  no 
mystery  about  your  case.  You  have  been  tam- 
pering with  drink  a  long  while,  trying  to  jump 
half  way  down  Niagara.  You  ought  to  have 
stopped  before  you  began.  It  would  not  have 
cost  you  one-hundredth  part  as  much  effort  to 
have  signed  a  total  abstinence  pledge  several 
years  ago  as  it  will  now  to  break  loose  from  this 
terrible  habit."  I  entreated  my  friend  to  grap- 
ple his  weakness  to  God's  strength.  He  signed 
a  pledge  of  entire  abstinence,   and  went  away 


S6  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

with  the  desperate  look  of  a  man  who  is  pulling 
for  life  in  the  rapids  in  full  sight  of  the  cataract. 
That  young  man  is  a  fair  representative  of  a 
sadly  numerous  class  who  "lock  the  stable-door 
after  the  horse  is  stolen."  He  may  possibly  be 
Saved,  but  so  as  by  fire.  My  plain  talk  to-day  is 
with  those  who  have  not  yet  flung  themselves 
into  the  rapids.  I  wish  to  give  half  a  dozen 
common-sense  reasons  for  letting  every  intoxica- 
ting drink  (whatever  its  name)  entirely  alone. 
He  who  never  touches  a  drop  will  assuredly 
never  become  a  drunkard.  Prevention  is  easy, 
is  safe,  is  sure;  reformation  is  difficult,  and  with 
some  persons  is  well  nigh  impossible.  The  Jews 
were  commanded  to  build  battlements  around 
the  flat  roofs  of  their  dwellings  in  order  to  pre- 
vent the  children  from  falling  over  into  the 
street.  To  put  up  the  parapet  cost  but  little, 
but  the  want  of  it  might  cost  broken  bones;  and 
alas!  what  human  power  could  recall  a  dead  dar- 
ling to  life?  I  am  always  thankful  that  I  took 
a  pledge  of  entire  abstinence  in  early  boyhood. 
But  for  that  battlement  I  mig^ht  have  been  ruined 


SAFEGUARD   OF   TOTAL   ABSTINE.N'CH.         8/ 

by  the  drinking  usages  which  were  deplorably 
prevalent  in  my  college.  "Stick  to  the  teeto- 
tal," said  a  shrewd  old  kinsman  to  me  when  I 
started  for  college;  and  now,  after  forty  years,  I 
wish  to  commend  the  bridge  that  carried  me 
safely  over. 

I.  The  first  argument,  my  friend,  for  total 
abstinence  is  that  no  healthy  person  needs  an 
alcoholic  beverage;  and  even  invalids  had  better 
be  careful  how  they  tamper  with  it  as  a  medi- 
cine. Sir  Henry  Thompson  and  several  other 
distinguished  British  physicians  have  deliber- 
ately declared  that  "alcoholic  beverages  cannot 
in  any  sense  be  considered  necessary  for  the 
maintenance  of  healthy  life,  that  it  is  not  a  food 
in  any  true  sense  of  that  term,  and  that  the 
steadiest  and  best  work  is  best  done  without  it." 
Livingstone,  the  heroic  explorer  of  Central  Af- 
rica, was  both  a  physician  and  a  teetotaler.  His 
testimony  was,  "I  find  that  I  can  stand  every 
hardship  best  by  using  water,  and  water  only." 
I  entreat  you  not  to  fall  into  the  delusion  that 
you  can  do  any  honest  work  the  better  by  firing 


88  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

Up  your  nerves  with  alcohol.  If  you  do,  you 
will  have  to  increase  the  fuel  constantly  in  order 
to  produce  the  effect.  Solid  food  and  sound 
sleep  are  all  you  require.  Even  as  a  tonic  medi- 
cine wine  and  bourbon  may  cover  up  a  great 
deal;  they  awe  but  very  little.  Several  friends  I 
have  known  to  be  decoyed  by  them  into  drunk- 
enness and  disQfrace. 

2.  Therein  lies  a  second  reason  for  avoidino- 
all  intoxicants.  They  are  deceitful.  Not  only 
the  sting  of  the  serpent,  but  the  subtlety  of  the 
serpent,  is  in  them.  The  deception  lies  in  the 
fact  that  the  Jiabit  of  drinking  will  become  con- 
firmed before  you  suspect  it.  That  young  man 
who  came  into  my  study  so  tortured  with  the 
adder's  bite  never  dreamed  at  the  outset  that  he 
was  playing  with  a  rattlesnake.  Every  alcoholic 
drink  has  in  it  this  quality,  that  it  never  satisfies, 
but  awakens  a  constant  demand  for  more.  A 
small  glass  creates  a  thirst  for  a  larger;  one 
draught  only  whets  the  appetite  for  a  second. 
This  is  not  the  case  with  any  wholesome  food  or 
beverage.     Bread  and  beef  do  not  breed  excess; 


SAFEGUARD   OF   TOTAL   ABSTINENCE.         89 

one  glass  of  milk  does  not  arouse  a  morbid  thirst 
for  two  the  next  time.  But  this  horse-leech 
quality  in  alcoholic  liquors,  which  cries,  "  Give, 
give,"  and  is  never  satisfied,  is  the  very  thing 
that  makes  them  so  daufjerous.  That  it  is  which 
makes  it  so  difficult  to  drink  wine  or  brandy 
moderately,  and  so  easy  to  fall  into  drunkenness. 
A  healthful  beverage  satisfies  appetite;  a  hurtful 
one,  like  wine  or  brandy,  stimulates  appetite 
until  it  becomes  an  imcontrollable  frenzy.  This 
I  regard  as  the  Creator's  law  against  alcohol ;  and 
when  you  take  your  first  social  glass  you  begin 
to  play  with  a  deadly  serpent. 

You  may  say,  "  Every  one  who  drinks  liquors 
does  not  become  a  sot."  Very  true,  but  every 
sot  drinks  liquors;  and  not  one  in  a  million  ever 
expected  to  become  a  sot  when  he  began  with  his 
champagne  or  his  "sherry  cobbler."  Will  you 
run  the  risk  ?  I  would  not.  The  most  deplor- 
able wrecks  are  those  of  men  or  women  who 
at  the  outset  considered  themselves  perfectly 
strong  and  invulnerable.  Nothing  from  the  pen 
of  Dickens   can   surpass  a   heart-rending    letter 

12 


90  NEWLY   EX  LISTED. 

which  I  received  from  a  cultured  gentleman 
(then  in  an  almshouse),  who  declared  that  he 
traced  all   the  misery  of  his  life  directly  to  the 

"first  glass  he  ever  drank  at  the  N House, 

in  the  capital  of  Ohio."  First  glasses  have  peo- 
pled hell!  With  whatever  "odds"  in  your 
favor,  will  you  run  the  fearful  hazard?  Then 
stop  before  you  begin. 

3.  A  third  reason  why  alcoholic  drinks  are 
dangerous  is  that  it  is  the  peculiar  property  of  al- 
cohol to  strike  directly  to  the  brain.  Some  drugs 
have  an  affinity  for  the  heart,  others  for  the 
spine.  The  glass  of  brandy  aims  for  the  brain 
as  a  hound  makes  for  a  hare.  In  striking  the 
brain  it  overturns  the  throne  of  the  reason  and 
makes  a  man  a  maniac.  Like  the  shot  in  a 
naval  battle  which  hits  "between  wind  and 
water,"  the  alcoholic  death-shot  strikes  where 
body  and  mind  meet,  and  sends  both  to  the  bot- 
tom.    No  brain  is  proof  against  it. 

The  mightiest  man  intellectually  whom  I 
ever  saw  in  America,  I  once  saw  pitiably  drunk  ! 
Alcohol  is  no  respecter  of  persons;  the  giant  and 


SAFEGUARD   OF   TOTAL    ABSTINEXCF:.         9I 

the  idiot  are  struck  down  alike  by  its  stiletto. 
You  might  as  well  put  the  pistol  to  your  brain 
and  make  swift,  sure  work  with  it  as  to  poison 
your  brain  by  the  slower  and  equally  deadly  pro- 
cess of  the  bottle.  Ninety-nine  hundredths  of  all 
the  suicides  in  the  land  began  with  a  thoughtless 
glass.     Stop,  my  friend,  before  you  begin! 

4.  All  intoxicating  drinks  are  more  danger- 
ous in  this  country  than  in  almost  any  other, 
from  the  nervous  temperament  of  our  people. 
Our  climate  is  stimulating,  and  American  life,  in 
almost  every  direction,  runs  at  a  high  rate  of 
speed.  Youth  is  commonly  stronger  at  the  en- 
gine than  it  is  at  the  brakes.  This  is  preemi- 
nently true  of  our  young  men.  One  unanswer- 
able proof  of  the  difficulty  of  stopping  the  drink- 
habit  is  found  in  the  fact  that  so  very  few  are 
actually  reformed.  Not  one-tenth  of  those  who 
enslave  themselves  to  the  bottle  ever  break  loose, 
even  though  they  cry  out  in  their  sober  moments, 
"Would  to  God  that  I  might  never  taste  another 
drop!'^  There  was  a  touching  pathos  in  the 
speech   of  one   of  "our   boys   in   blue"  to   the 


92  NEWI,Y   ENLISTED." 

police  magistrate  after  he  was  arrested  for  drunk- 
enness. He  held  up  a  whiskey  flask  and  said, 
"Your  honor,  the  only  enemy  that  ever  con- 
quered me  is  thatP''  Yet  he  admitted  that  en- 
emy himself  and  could  not  dislodge  it. 

I  might  multiply  arguments  in  favor  of  total 
abstinence  as  the  only  certain  safeguard.  The 
grace  of  God  is  powerless  if  you  voluntarily 
yield  to  temptation.  It  is  a  defiance  to  the  Al- 
mighty for  you  to  leap  into  the  rapids  and  ex- 
pect him  to  save  you  from  the  cataract.  The  re- 
mainder of  my  life  shall  be  spent  in  endeavoring 
to  prevent  young  men  from  embarking  on  the 
stream  which  is  all  music  and  mirth  at  the  start- 
ing-point, and  all  death  and  damnation  at  the 
bottom.  Tons  of  arguments  and  appeals  have 
been  printed  on  this  vital  question,  "  How  to 
save  young  men  from  strong  drink,"  but  they 
may  all  be  condensed  into  one  line — Stop  before 
you  beg  in  ! 


THE    PERILS  OF  THE   PLAYHOUSE.  93 


THE  PERILS  OF  THE  PLAYHOUSE. 


Young  people  often  ask  me  the  questions, 
*' Would  it  be  rii^lit  for  nie  to  ^o  to  the  theatre? 
If  not,  then  why  not?" 

Those  who  propound  these  questions  are  not 
of  the  dissipated  and  dissolute  class,  but  clean 
young  men  and  maidens  —  too  clean  to  be 
smirched  by  needless  exposure  to  impure  influen- 
ces. That  such  questions  are  constantly  raised  is 
not  surprising-,  for  the  playhouse  is  increasingly 
persistent  in  its  demands  on  popular  attention 
and  patronage.  It  fills  a  constantly  enlarging 
place  in  the  daily  journals.  Theatres  multiply 
more  rapidly  than  churches  in  some  of  our 
great  cities.  Theatre-going  increases  more  than 
church-going.  The  dead  walls  are  covered  with 
pictorial  representations  of  scenes  and  actors  in 
full  dress  (or  in  very  little  dress),  and  many  of 
these  are  of  such  disgusting  indecency  that  they 


94  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

deserve  suppression  by  the  public  authorities. 
If  the  pictures  be  so  shameless,  what  must  the 
originals  be?  Before  our  youthful  inquirers  be- 
come patrons  of  the  playhouse  it  is  but  fair  that 
they  should  know  just  what  perils  to  their  moral 
nature  and  their  welfare  as  immortal  beings  they 
are  likely  to  encounter. 

First.  The  first  peril  is  to  purity  of  character. 
Your  eyes  and  ears  are  windows  and  doors  to  the 
heart.  What  enters  once  never  goes  out.  Photo- 
graphs taken  on  the  memory  are  not  easily  ef- 
faced or  burned  up;  they  stick  there,  and  often 
become  tempters  and  tormentors  for  a  lifetime. 
*'I'd  give  my  right  hand,"  said  a  Christian  to 
me  once,  "  if  I  could  rub  out  the  abominable 
things  that  I  put  into  my  mind  when  I  was  a 
fast  young  man."  He  could  not  do  it;  neither 
will  you  be  able  to  efface  the  lascivious  images 
or  the  impure  words  which  the  stage  may  photo- 
graph on  your  very  soul.  We  do  not  affirm  that 
every  popular  play  is  immoral,  or  that  every  per- 
former is  impure,  or  that  every  play-goer  is  on 
the  scent  for  sensual  excitements;  but  the  stage 


THE   PERILS   OF   THE   PLAYHOUSE.  95 

is  to  be  estimated  as  a  totality,  and  the  whole 
trend  of  the  average  American  stage  is  hostile  to 
heart-purity.  The  exceptions  do  not  alter  the 
rule.  Nor  have  honest  attempts  to  bring  the 
stage  up  to  a  high  standard  of  moral  purity  been 
successful.  The  experiment,  once  made  in  Bos- 
ton, of  so  managing  a  theatre  as  to  exclude  every 
indelicacy  from  the  stage  and  every  notoriously 
improper  person  from  the  audience,  ended  in  a 
pecuniary  failure.  The  puritanic  playhouse  soon 
went  into  bankruptcy.  The  chief  object  of  the 
manager  is  to  make  money;  and  if  he  can  spice 
his  evening  entertainment  with  a  plot  that  turns 
on  a  seduction  or  w^ith  a  scene  of  sexual  passion 
or  with  a  salacious  exposure  of  physical  beauty, 
the  temptation  is  very  often  too  strong  to  be  re- 
sisted. 

You  must  take  the  average  stage  as  it  is,  and 
not  as  you  w^ould  like  to  have  it.  It  is  an  insti- 
tution wdiich,  if  you  patronize  it,  you  become 
morally  responsible  for — as  much  as  if  you  were 
to  patronize  a  public  library  or  a  public  drink- 
ing-saloon.     As  an  institution  it  habitually  un- 


gS  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

sexes  woman  by  parading  her  in  man's  attire 
before  a  mixed  audience.  Too  often  it  exposes 
her  in  such  a  pitiable  scantiness  of  any  attire  at 
all  that  if  you  saw  your  own  sister  in  such  a 
plight  you  would  turn  away  your  eyes  in  horror. 
Yet  you  propose  to  pay  your  money,  through  the 
box-office,  to  somebody  else's  sisters  and  daugh- 
ters to  violate  womanly  delicacy  for  your  enter- 
tainment. If  "the  dauo^hter  of  Herodias'* 
dances  to  please  you,  then  you  are  responsible  for 
the  dance  in  its  influence  on  both  the  dancer  and 
your  own  moral  sense.  There  is  no  evading,  be- 
fore God,  your  accountability  for  the  theatre  if 
you  habitually  support  it.  What  its  influence 
upon  the  average  performer  is  appears  from  most 
abundant  testimony.  One  of  the  most  celebrated 
actresses  of  this  time  informed  a  friend  of  mine 
that  she  ''enters  a  theatre  only  to  enact  her  part, 
and  has  very  little  association  with  her  own  pro-^ 
fession."  A  converted  actor  once  said  to  me, 
while  passing  a  playhouse  in  which  he  had  often 
performed,  "  Behind  those  curtains  lies  Sodom." 
Although  sorely  pressed  to  return  to  his  old  bus- 


THE   PERILS  OE   THE   PLAYHOUSE.  97 

iness,  he  said  he  would  starve  sooner  than  go  on 
the  stage  again.  Mrs.  Frances  Kemble  Butler — 
the  last  living  representative  of  the  most  famous 
histrionic  family  of  modern  times — has  in  her  old 
age  emphatically  condemned  the  stage.  As  an 
institution  the  American  theatre  tolerates  sen- 
sual impurity  in  its  performers  and  presents 
scenes  of  impurity  to  its  patrons.  If  you  become 
one  of  its  patrons,  you  go  into  moral  partnership 
with  the  theatre. 

Second.  It  would  be  a  sufficient  condemnation 
of  the  average  playhouse  if  it  stimulates  one  evil 
passion.  But  other  temptations  lurk  about  it. 
There  are  danfjerous  associations  to  be  encoun- 
tered  there.  It  is  a  prevalent  habit  with  young 
people  who  attend  the  theatre  to  remain  until  a 
late  hour  amid  the  excitement  of  the  plays,  and 
then  to  finish  off  with  a  midnight  supper  or  a 
wine-drink  at  some  neighboring  restaurant.  To 
this  perilous  practice  a  young  lady  of  my  ac- 
quaintance ow^ed  her  downfall.  Long  after  sen- 
sible people  have  laid  their  heads  on  their  pil- 
lows the  habitues  of  the  theatre  are  apt  to  be  add- 


98  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

ing  a  second  scene  of  dissipation  to  the  first  one. 
It  must  be  pretty  hard  work  for  a  Christian  to 
finish  up  such  an  evening's  experience  with  an 
honest  prayer  for  God's  blessing.  That  is  indeed 
a  poor  business  and  a  poor  pleasure  on  which  we 
cannot  with  a  clear  conscience  ask  our  Heavenly 
Father's  approval.  Certainly  there  are  enough 
innocent,  wholesome,  and  beneficial  recreations 
without  venturing  into  the  dangerous  atmos- 
phere of  the  playhouse.  That  is  a  dear-bought 
pleasure  which  involves  even  a  risk  to  the  im- 
mortal soul. 

Third.  Another  peril  of  the  theatre  arises 
from  the  fascination  which  it  too  often  engen- 
ders. Like  wine-drinking,  it  becomes  an  appe- 
tite, and  a  very  greedy  appetite.  To  gratify  this 
growing  passion  for  the  playhouse  tens  of  thou- 
sands of  young  people  most  profusely  squander 
their  money  and  their  time.  Other  and  purer 
recreations  become  tame  and  insipid.  Even  the 
entertainments  of  the  stage  become  dull  unless 
they  are  spiced  with  new  excitements  to  the  pas- 
sions.    Wholesome  pleasures  cease  to  please,  just 


THE   PERILS   OF  THE   PLAYHOUSE.  99 

as  a  brandv-drinker  ceases  to  be  satisfied  with 
cold  water  or  a  cup  of  coffee.  It  is  not  recrea- 
tion but  stimulation — and  a  very  dangerous  sort 
of  stimulation  too — that  you  will  be  after  when 
you  become  enslaved  by  the  fascinations  of  the 
stage. 

My  young  friends,  be  assured  that  no  saga- 
cious employer  ever  chooses  a  clerk  or  an  ac- 
countant, or  any  other  employe,  the  sooner  be- 
cause he  is  a  theatre-goer.  No  sensible  man  is 
apt  to  select  the  companion  of  his  heart  and 
home  because  she  is  a  frequenter  of  a  playhouse. 
No  wise  Christian  mother  wants  her  sons  and 
daughters  there.  No  pastor  expects  his  youthful 
church  members  to  go  into  that  impure  atmos- 
phere without  a  terrible  damage  to  their  piety. 
I  do  not  believe  that  the  theatre  has  helped 
many  souls  towards  heaven;  I  know  that  it  has 
sent  thousands  to  perdition. 

Now  that  .1  have  in  kind  and  candid  plain- 
ness of  speech  pointed  out  some  of  the  inevitable 
perils  of  the  playhouse,  ought  you  to  take  the 
risk? 


lOO  NEWLY   ENUSTED. 


FOR  CHRIST'S  SAKE. 


"For  my  sake."  These  three  little  words 
are  the  touchstone  of  love.  The  application  of 
this  touchstone  begins  with  infancy  and  ends 
only  with  the  end  of  life.  If  that  baby  in  the 
mother's  arms  could  speak  intelligently  it  would 
say,  "It  is  for  my  sake  that  a  mother's  eye 
watches  unsleeping  through  the  midnight  hours 
and  her  arms  hold  me  until  they  are  ready  to 
drop  off  for  weariness."  "  For  my  sake"  many 
a  successful  man  acknowledges  gratefully  that 
his  parents  toiled  and  economized  in  order  to  buy 
books  and  pay  college  bills.  "For  my  sake'* 
provides  the  sheltering  roof  and  the  arm-chair 
for  dear  old  grandma  at  the  fireside.  Take  these 
three  words  out  of  our  language  and  you  would 
rob  home  of  its  sweetness  and  human  life  of  some 
of  its  noblest  inspirations. 

Our  divine  Master  made  these  words  the  text 


FOR   CHRIST'S  SAKE.  lOI 

of  several  of  his  most  impressive  injunctions. 
"Whosoever  shall  lose  his  life  for  my  sake,  the 
same  shall  save  it."  To  newly-converted  Saul 
of  Tarsus  the  first  message  is,  "I  will  show  him 
how  great  things  he  must  suffer  for  my  name's 
sake."  Again  and  again  the  early  disciples  were 
exhorted  to  bear  crosses  bravely  for  Jesus^  sake. 
Christ  came  into  this  world  to  save  us  from  our 
sins,  and  chiefly  to  save  us  from  the  abomina- 
ble and  damnins:  sin  of  selfishness.  The  one 
motive  that  has  the  power  to  lift  us  out  of  self 
and  to  exalt  life  to  its  highest  and  holiest  phase 
is  heart -love  for  a  crucified  Saviour.  "Love 
Me  more  than  houses  or  lands  or  wife  or  chil- 
dren," is  the  first  condition  of  discipleship.  No 
soul  is  truly  converted  until  it  cuts  loose  from 
self-righteousness  and  accepts  Jesus  Christ  as  the 
only  ground  of  salvation.  Conversion  signifies 
that  self  has  grounded  its  arms  in  its  very  citadel 
and  has  surrendered  the  keys  of  the  heart  to  the 
conquering  Saviour.  Henceforth  it  inscribes 
"for  Christ's  sake"  on  its  banner.  The  short- 
est and  most  comprehensive  confession  of  faith 


102  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

that  any  Christian  can  phrase  is  about  in  these 
words:  "It  is  Christ's  business  to  save  me;  it  is 
my  business  to  serve  Christ." 

"  Saviour,  teach  me  day  by  day 
Love's  sweet  lesson  to  obey ; 
Sweeter  lesson  cannot  be, 
Loving  him  who  first  loved  me." 

The  Master  never  allowed  the  supreme  test 
of  loyalty  to  him  to  be  a  mere  emotion,  however 
fervid.  It  was  a  practical  test.  "  If  ye  love  me, 
keep  my  commandments.''''  Write  these  decisive 
words  upon  the  walls  of  every  prayer-room,  to 
rebuke  the  rant  and  the  rhapsodies  in  which  too 
many  windy  professors  indulge,  while  their  hon- 
est debts  remain  unpaid  and  their  own  children 
sneer  at  the  pious  sham.  It  is  not  how  many 
promises  we  make,  but  how  many  command- 
ments we  obey;  it  is  not  how  many  tears  we 
shed,  but  how  many  sins  we  renounce;  it  is  not 
how  many  sacraments  we  observe,  but  how  many 
deeds  we  do  for  the  Master's  sake,  that  decides 
the  genuineness  of  our  Christianity.  Evermore  is 
the  eye  of  our  loving  Saviour  upon  us,  and  ever- 


FOR   CHRIST'S  SAKE.  I03 

more  is  that  voice  saying  unto  us,  "  Live  for  me; 
take  up  this  cross  for  my  sake."  When  we  are 
sore  tempted  to  an  act  of  retaliation  or  to  some 
sharp  scheme  that  selfishness  has  varnished  over 
with  falsehood,  that  rebuking  voice  accosts  us: 
"Wound  me  not  in  the  house  of  my  friends." 
Sometimes  a  suffering  servant  of  Jesus  conies  to 
us  for  a  proof  of  sympathy  that  costs  more  than 
smooth  words.  Selfishness  begins  to  mutter 
about  "impostors"  and  "no  end  to  these  calls 
of  charity."  But  He  who  died  for  both  of  us 
whispers  gently,  "Do  it  unto  me.  He  is  one  of 
my  suffering  children.  Help  him  for  my  sake." 
There  is  not  a  negro  freedman  who  solicits  aid 
for  his  struggling  church,  or  a  hungry  stranger 
who  knocks  at  our  door  for  bread;  there  is  not  a 
poor  widow  that  asks  for  a  dollar  to  pay  her  rent, 
or  a  neglected  child  running  in  rags  and  reck- 
lessness to  ruin  for  want  of  a  friend,  but  ever  the 
same  voice  is  saying  to  us,  "Give  to  them  for 
my  sake.  Inasmuch  as  ye  do  it  unto  one  of  the 
least  of  these,  ye  do  it  unto  me." 

One  of  the  little  orphan  boys  in  John  Falk's 


104  NEWLY   ENLISTED.  ( 

German  charity  school  repeated  at  the  supper- 
table  their  usual  grace,  "Come,  Lord  Jesus,  be 
our  guest  and  bless  the  food  thou  hast  provided." 
A  lad  looked  up  and  said,  "Tell  us,  teacher, 
why  the  Lord  Jesus  never  comes."  "Dear 
child,  only  believe,  and  you  may  be  sure  that 
he  will  come  to  us  some  of  these  times,  for  he 
always  hears  us."  "Then,"  replied  the  bright 
lad,  "I'll  set  a  chair  for  him;"  and  he  put  one 
by  the  table.  By-and-by  a  knock  was  heard  at 
the  door.  A  poor  travelling  apprentice  was  ad- 
mitted and  asked  for  food  and  lodging.  The  lit- 
tle fellow  looked  at  the  strano:er  a  few  moments 
and  then  piped  out,  "Ah,  I  see!  Jesus  could  not 
come  to-night  and  so  he  sent  this  poor  young 
man  in  his  place.  Is  that  the  way,  teacher?" 
"  Yes,  my  boy,  that  is  just  it.  Every  cup  of 
water  or  bit  of  bread  we  give  to  the  poor  and 
hungry  for  Jesus'  sake  we  give  to  Him.  Inas- 
much as  we  do  it  to  the  least  of  our  brethren,  we 
do  it  unto  our  Saviour." 

There  are  a  thousand  applications  of  this  prin- 
ciple of  self-denial  for  Christ's  sake.     Grand  old 


FOR  CHRIST'S  SAKE.  105 

Paul  had  it  in  his  mind  when  he  wrote,  "It  is 
good  neither  to  eat  flesh  nor  to  drink  wine  nor 
anything  whereby  thy  brother  stunibleth  or  is 
made  weak."  It  is  not  easy  for  a  true  Christian 
to  keep  this  text  in  his  Bible  and  to  keep  a  bot- 
tle on  his  table.  They  do  not  harmonize.  The 
bottle  means  temptation.  The  text  means  that 
things  which  are  not  always  sinful  per  se  should 
be  cheerfully  given  up  for  the  sake  of  others;  and 
the  legal  liberty  of  the  man  or  woman  whose 
heart  is  in  the  right  place  will  never  be  exercised 
when  a  moral  evil  may  flow  from  such  exercise. 
We  have  no  right  to  put  a  stumbling-block  in 
the  path  of  others.  As  a  Christian  I  am  bound 
to  surrender  every  self-indulgence  which  works 
directly  against  the  best  interests  of  my  fellow- 
men,  especially  if  it  endangers  precious  souls  for 
whom  Jesus  died.  This  principle  gives  to  the 
doctrine  of  total  abstinence  from  intoxicants  a 
broad  Bible  basis  as  solid  as  the  Hudson  Pali- 
sades. 

The  two  unanswerable  arQ^uments  ajrainst  the 
drinking  usages  are  these:  An  alcoholic  beverage 

14 


Io6  NEWLY   ENLISTED, 

endangers  me  if  I  tamper  with  it;  it  endangers 
my  fellow-man  if  I  offer  it  to  him.  My  Bible 
teaches  me  to  let  it  alone  for  the  sake  of  the 
*'weak"  and  those  who  stumble.  Ah,  those 
stumblers!  How  many  wrecks  the  word  reveals! 
How  many  tombs  it  opens  whose  charitable  turf 
hides  out  of  sight  what  surviving  kindred  would 
love  to  hide  from  memory!  For  Jesus'  sake  and 
for  the  sake  of  the  easily  tempted  who  will  hide 
behind  our  example,  let  us  who  call  ourselves 
Christians  put  away  this  bottled  devil  which  con- 
ceals damnation  under  its  ruby  glow.  This  sub- 
ject of  self-surrender  for  Jesus'  sake  is  as  wide  as 
the  domain  of  Christian  duty.  To  live  for  Christ 
is  the  sweetest  and  holiest  life  we  can  live;  to 
live  for  self  is  the  most  wretched.  Every  cross 
is  turned  into  a  crown,  every  burden  becomes  a 
blessing,  every  sacrifice  becomes  sacred  and  sub- 
lime, the  moment  that  our  lyord  and  Redeemer 
writes  on  it,  ^^For  my  sake.'''' 


CONSECRATION.  lO' 


CONSECRATION. 


Among  the  many  passages  in  the  Old  Testa- 
ment whose  translation  is  vitally  improved  in 
the  new  Revision  is  the  following  verse  in  the 
first  book  of  the  Chronicles:  "Who  then  offereth 
willingly  to  consecrate  himself  this  day  unto  the 
Lord?"  King  David  propounded  this  question 
to  the  people  of  Israel  when  he  was  about  under- 
taking the  noble  project  of  rearing  a  magnificent 
temple  to  Jehovah.  He  called  for  contributions 
of  money  and  of  labor.  There  was  to  be  no  en- 
forced draft  of  either  men  or  money;  every  gift 
was  to  be  spontaneous  and  offered  willingly.  It 
is  the  same  thought  which  Paul  presents  when 
he  exhorts  us,  "Whatsoever  ye  do,  do  it  Jicariily^ 
as  to  the  Lord."  The  overmastering  love  of 
Christ  in  the  soul  will  make  hard  labors  light 
and  unwelcome  tasks  agreeable  and  sacrifices 
prompt  and  cheerful.       "Plunged   into  the  at- 


I08  NEWLY  ENLISTED.  ( 

mosphere  of  love,  the  dim  flame  of  obedience 
will  burn  more  brightly,  like  a  lamp  plunged 
into  ajar  of  pure  oxygen." 

The  very  word  ' '  consecration ' '  savors  of 
pious  cant  in  the  estimation  of  some  people,  be- 
cause they  have  heard  it  glibly  used  by  certain 
sentimental  Christians  in  a  cheap  and  flippant 
fashion.  Rightly  felt  and  practised,  it  is  the 
very  essence  of  healthy,  holy,  and  happy  piety. 
God  has  a  sovereign  right  to  us;  in  every  sweet 
breath  of  his  pure  air,  in  every  object  of  beauty 
our  eyes  behold,  in  every  line  of  his  precious 
Word,  in  every  step  of  his  providential  care,  in 
every  heart-joy  at  the  mercy-seat,  in  every  prom- 
ise fulfilled  and  grace  imparted,  we  discover  a 
new  obligation  to  be  the  Lord's.  ^'Ye  are  not 
your  own;  ye  are  bought  with  a  price;"  these 
solemn,  tender  words  seal. the  claim  of  our  cruci- 
fied Master.  Christ  for  me,  and  I  for  Christ,  is 
the  very  core  of  honest  self-consecration. 

To  be  worth  anything  this  must  begin  with 
and  centre  in  the  Iicai^t.  The  whole  undivided 
soul  must  be  surrendered  to  Him  who  died  to  re- 


CONSECRATION.  IO9 

deem  the  soul.  Christ  will  not  take  up  with  a 
closet  or  a  corner.  He  demands  the  complete  sur- 
render of  the  will,  the  faculties,  and  the  affections. 
A  hundred  half-Christians  cannot  make  a  single 
whole  one.  The  more  heart  there  is  in  our  reli- 
gion, the  more  joy,  the  more  power,  the  more 
victory.  Nobody  succeeds  in  what  is  imdertaken 
grudgingly;  the  successful  men  have  always 
been,  like  Paul,  men  of  one  idea.  ''This  one 
thinof  I  do;"  "For  me  to  live  is  Christ."  The 
paramount  purpose  with  Isaac  Newton  was  star- 
eyed  science;  he  waited  at  the  posts  of  her  doors 
until  she  taught  him  how  to  weigh  the  globe. 
Love  of  his  art  held  Joshua  Reynolds  to  his  easel 
for  twenty  unbroken  hours  till  he  had  caught  the 
coveted  conception  on  his  canvas.  The  great, 
rugged  Scotch  soul  of  Livingstone  was  already 
anion  or  the  heathen  of  the  Dark  Continent  before 
he  carried  his  body  thither  for  martyrdom.  The 
more  of  your  heart  you  give  to  Jesus  the  more 
will  Jesus  give  you  of  himself. 

In  reading  the  biographies  of  many  of  the 
most  vigorous  and  effective  Christians  we  have 


no  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

been  struck  with  the  fact  that  at  the  outset  they 
entered  into  a  solemn,  sincere  covenant  of  self- 
consecration.  Something  like  this  has  been  the 
spirit  if  not  always  the  actual  language  of  their 
dedication  of  themselves  to  God:  "Oh,  heart- 
searching  God  and  Father,  thou  hast  a  right  to 
me,  as  my  Creator  and  Preserver,  and  as  having 
given  thy  Son  to  be  my  Saviour.  I  thank  thee 
that  eternal  life  has  been  offered  to  me  through 
his  atoning  death,  that  the  Holy  Spirit  has 
drawn  my  heart  unto  thee,  and  that  thou  hast 
called  me  to  thy  blessed  service.  May  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  dwell  in  my  heart  by  his  Spirit,  and 
purify  me  and  fill  me  unto  all  the  fulness  of 
God!  Unto  thee  I  do  consecrate  my  heart,  my 
body,  my  time,  my  possessions,  my  influence — 
all  I  am  and  all  I  hope  to  have  in  this  world  or 
another.  Teach  me  how  to  serve  thee,  and  may 
I  never  grow  weary  in  doing  thy  holy  will.  Let 
thy  Word  abide  in  me  in  all  wisdom  and  thy 
grace  ever  be  sufficient  for  me.  Make  me  stead- 
fast in  faith,  perfect  in  love,  and  abundant  in 
labor;  and  when  this  poor  heart  shall  cease  to 


CONSECRATION.  Ill 

pulsate  on  earth,  grant  me  a  gracious  admission 
as  a  sinner  saved  into  the  higher,  holier  service 
of  thy  heavenly  kingdom — for  Jesus'  sake." 

Whoever  can  in  humble  sincerity  make  this 
consecration  of  himself  to  God  has  taken  the 
great  initial  step  towards  a  healthy  and  happy 
Christian  life.  When  the  heart  is  given  to 
Christ  and  given  without  reserve  or  compromise, 
all  other  things  will  be  quite  sure  to  follow. 
"Holiness  to  the  Lord"  will  be  stamped  on 
them  as  a  merchant  stamps  his  trade-mark  on 
his  wares.  Such  practical  questions  as.  What 
work  shall  I  engage  in,  how  much  time  shall  I 
devote,  and  how  much  money  shall  I  give  ?  will 
be  settled  by  a  conscience  of  which  Christ  is 
Kinof.  Christ  will  ^et  the  best.  The  first-fruits 
will  not  be  locked  up  in  the  granary  or  the  fat- 
test sheep  killed  for  the  table  of  selfishness.  The 
whole  week  will  not  be  monopolized  for  business 
or  household  duties  and  a  hurried  ten  minutes  be 
snatched  for  private  prayer  or  a  sleepy  hour  be 
grudgingly  given  to  a  devotional  meeting.  If 
there  is  a  bright,  intellectual  son  in  the  family, 


112  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

the  first  thouglit  will  not  be  to  enter  him  in  the 
race  for  wealth  or  fame  or  splendid  station,  but 
this  other  thought — May  not  Jesus  Christ  have  a 
use  for  this  brain  and  tongue  in  preaching  his 
glorious  gospel  ?  There  are  some  of  us  ministers 
who  in  heaven  will  thank  a  godly  mother  for 
having  made  this  very  choice  for  us  and* for  hav- 
ing consecrated  us  from  infancy  to  this  "high 
calling."  There  are  very  many  other  ways  in 
which  a  man  may  serve  God  outside  of  a  pulpit; 
but  Jesus  Christ  ought  to  have  the  "pick"  in 
our  schools  and  colleges,  and  back  of  that  in  our 
homes  and  households.  No  vounsf  man  or  wo- 
man  ever  consecrated  himself  or  herself  to  the 
work  of  saving  souls  and  helping  their  fellow- 
creatures  God  ward  and  was  sorry  for  it. 

The  question  "Where  shall  I  find  a  field  of 
labor  for  Christ?"  must  be  settled  by  the  other 
considerations — "What  am  I  best  fitted  for?  and 
Where  am  I  most  needed?"  Mary  Lyon's  in- 
junction to  her  pupils  at  Mt.  Holyoke  was  worthy 
of  Paul  himself:  "Young  ladies,  in  choosing 
your  place  of  labor  go  zvhcrc  nobody  else  is  luill- 


CONSECRATION.  II3 

ing  to  goy  That  sentence  is  as  near  like  Holy 
Scripture  as  Abraham  Lincoln's  "With  malice 
towards  none,  with  charity  for  all." 

The  amount  of  our  property  to  be  consecrated 
to  purposes  of  benevolence  should  be  left  to  a 
prayer-enlightened  conscience.  If  Christ  keeps 
the  check-book  and  the  key  of  the  purse,  then 
he  will  get  his  due  share.  But  not  a  dollar 
should  be  given  to  charity  which  is  demanded 
by  honest  indebtedness.  "Owe  no  man  any- 
thing but  to  love  one  another"  is  a  divine  rule 
whose  claim  is  as  binding  as  the  claim  of  God's 
treasury.  The  Bible  rule  is  that  every  one 
should  give  "as  God  hath  prospered  him;"  in 
other  words,  according  to  his  means.  This  puts 
the  poor  widow's  mites  on  a  par  with  the  mil- 
lions of  a  rich  donor.  The  most  effective  way  of 
consecrating  money  is  to  bestow  it  systematic- 
ally— just  as  the  river  Nile  gives  so  much  water 
and  just  so  much  soil  and  rice-crop  every  year. 
But,  good  friends,  after  you  and  I  have  consecra- 
ted our  whole  selves  and  all  our  possessions,  we 
shall  still  meet  our  Lord  in  heaven  d,s  poor  debtors. 

Newly  EiilintcJ.  I  C 


114  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


MORE  ABUNDANT  UFE. 


He  is  a  poor  specimen  of  a  Christian  who  is 
satisfied  to  be  to-day  no  better  than  he  was  yes- 
terday. To  be  barely  alive  is  not  enough.  Je- 
sus promises  to  all  his  blood-bought  disciples 
that  they  shall  have  "life  more  abundantly y  We 
give  away  to  impenitent  sinners  or  to  seeking 
souls  some  precious  promises  which  belong  to 
true  believers.  "A  new  heart  will  I  give  you; 
a  new  spirit  will  I  put  within  you."  Such 
promises  reach  beyond  inquiry-rooms;  they  are 
for  every-day  consumption  by  us  who  claim  to  be 
Christians.  We  need  to  have  a  new  heart  again 
and  again,  just  as  our  faces  require  frequent 
washing  and  our  bodies  require  frequent  feeding. 
Christ  is  an  inexhaustible  fountain-head  of  life, 
and  it  depends  upon  ourselves  as  to  how  much  of 
this  divine  life  shall  stream  into  our  souls. 

I.   One    of  the   indications   of   an    increased 


MORK    ABUNDANT    LIKP:.  II5 

Christ-life  in  the  soul  will  be  more  vigor.  I  have 
a  tree  in  my  yard  that  used  to  issue  its  promis- 
sory notes  in  May,  and  failed  to  redeem  them 
with  more  than  a  handful  of  fruit  in  August.  It 
shook  down  its  beautiful  white  blossoms  in  the 
spring,  and  that  about  exhausted  it.  I  dug  about 
it  and  applied  a  strong  fertilizer,  and  now  it  fills 
a  big  basket  with  delicious  pears.  So  does  our 
Master  often  deal  with  us.  He  puts  in  the 
plough  of  sharp  providences  that  make  tearing 
work  about  the  roots  and  dislodge  the  vermin 
of  besettins:  sins.  With  the  trials  come  the 
strengthening  graces.  When  a  man's  system  is 
in  a  low,  impoverished  condition  he  is  apt  to 
catch  any  fever  that  is  a-going.  So  it  is  a  low 
spiritual  life  that  breeds  worldliness  and  stingi- 
ness and  censoriousness  and  other  acute  attacks 
of  sinful  lusts.  With  a  sick  soul,  as  with  a  sick 
body,  the  problem  often  is  whether  there  is  vital- 
ity enoufjh  inside  to  slouo-h  off  the  disease.  "I 
have  prayed  for  thee  that  thy  faith  fail  not,"  said 
Jesus  when  Simon  Peter  was  in  a  bad  way;  but 
for  imparted  grace  that  ugly  attack  in  Pilate's 


Il6  NEWI.Y  ENLISTED. 

Hall  might  have  been  the  end  of  poor  Peter. 
When  he  got  the  more  abundant  vigor  of  Christ's 
Spirit  he  went  through  tenfold  greater  dangers 
imharmed.  Why  should  any  Christian  be  merely 
gasping  when  he  ought  to  be  "strengthened 
with  all  power  in  his  inner  man,  according  to 
the  might"  of  Christ  Jesus?  The  more  vigor 
we  desire  the  more  w^e  shall  receive,  and  the 
more  we  receive  the  more  we  will  be  able  to 
receive. 

2.  A  second  evidence  of  increased  life  is  an 
increase  oi  faith.  A  small  faith  can  move  mole- 
hills; a  stalwart  faith  can  remove  mountains. 
It  is  the  feebleness  of  the  grip  on  God  that  makes 
it  so  hard  for  us  to  stand  the  heavy  strains  or  to 
lift  the  heavy  loads.  This  is  the  reason  why 
some  parents  and  teachers  produce  no  impression 
on  the  young  hearts  committed  to  them;  for  this 
same  reason  many  pastors  reap  no  harvests. 
"According  to  your  fatt/i  be  it  unto  you."  That 
is  Christ's  mode  of  measurement.  Mr.  Spurgeon 
tells  us  of  a  fervent,  fearless  preacher  who  went 
into  a  region   where  wickedness  abounded.     In 


MORE   ABUNDANT    LIFE.  II7 

one  of  his  first  sermons  lie  said,  "  Now  you  may 
squirm  and  scoff  as  much  as  you  will,  but  I  tell 
you  that  before  a  twelvemonth  hundreds  of  you 
will  be  converted.  I  have  asked  the  Lord  for 
this,  and  he  will  give  it  to  me."  And  the  Lord 
did  give  him  wdiat  he  looked  for  and  labored  for; 
within  less  than  a  year  there  were  six  hundred 
conversions.  Faith  signifies  the  grappling  union 
of  the  soul  with  the  Almighty  Saviour.  The 
closer  the  connection  the  more  power  flows  in. 
A  current  of  electricity  sent  through  a  huge 
horseshoe  magnet  will  enable  it  to  support  a 
weight  of  a  thousand  pounds;  stop  the  current, 
and  the  weight  drops  instantly.  The  more 
abundant  our  faith  the  fuller  will  be  the  inflow 
of  Christ.  Paul's  secret  was  just  this:  ''  Not  I, 
but  Christ  that  liveth  in  me;  and  the  life  I  live 
I  live  hy  faith  on  the  Son  of  God.' 

3.  If  Christ  be  in  us  more  abundantly  there 
will  be  a  great  influx  of  joy.  None  of  us  is  as 
happy  as  he  or  she  might  be.  Some  Christians 
carry  such  a  doleful  countenance  and  cheerless 
atmosphere  that  if  they  should  venture  to  urge  a 


Il8  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

friend  to  coine  to  Christ  the  answer  might  very 
properly  be,  ' '  No,  I  thank  you.  I  have  troubles 
enough  of  my  own  without  adding  to  them  such 
a  forlorn  religion  as  yours.''  Such  Christians 
cheat  themselves  out  of  their  birthright.  Jesus 
assures  us  that  his  joy  may  remain  in  us  and  that 
our  joy  may  be  full.  Raptures  are  not  always 
vouchsafed  even  to  the  healthiest  disciple.  But 
a  healthy  man  will  enjoy  eating  a  ripe  peach;  a 
loving  wife  enjoys  a  husband's  kiss;  and  there 
must  be  something  wrong  with  a  man  or  woman 
who  professes  to  feed  on  Christ  and  to  do  Christ's 
will,  and  yet  finds  no  delight  in  it.  How  can 
we  have  Jesus  in  our  souls  and  yet  feel  no  joy  ? 
Just  as  soon  expect  to  find  an  aviary  full  of  cana- 
ries and  goldfinches  and  larks  that  should  be  as 
silent  as  a  tomb.  Joy  is  love  looking  at  its  treas- 
ures. The  richer  we  become  in  Christ's  presence 
now  and  the  expectation  of  dwelling  with  him 
for  ever,  the  more  investments  we  make  in  do- 
ing good  to  others  and  in  saving  souls,  the  more 
abundant  will  be  the  casket  of  our  jewels.  When 
a  person  says  to  me,    "I  don't  enjoy  my  reli- 


MORE   ABUNDANT   LIFE.  II9 

gion,"  the  proper  reply  is,  "Then  you  cannot 
have  enough  religion  to  enjoy.  Get  fuller  of 
Christ,  and  he  will  put  the  sunshine  into  your 
soul  and  the  song  into  your  mouth." 

4.  Another  token  of  increased  life  will  be  an 
increased  resistance  to  sin  and  a  quickening  of 
conscience  in  every-day  transactions.  One  of  the 
most  lamentable  lacks  in  too  many  church  mem- 
bers is  the  lack  of  a  sensitive,  healthy  conscience. 
"Blessed  are  they  which  do  hunger  and  thirst 
after  rigJitconsncss^'^''  said  our  Lord.  We  talk  of 
this  brother  or  that  one  as  "weak;"  but  in  eth- 
ics to  be  weak  is  to  be  wicked.  It  is  just  these 
weak  professors  who  are  bringing  shame  on  the 
name  of  Christianity.  Religious  motives  may 
burn  brightly  in  prayer-meeting,  but  be  blown 
out  like  a  candle  as  soon  as  a  strong  wind  of  temp- 
tation strikes  them  in  the  open  air.  Dr.  Hodge 
said  of  a  certain  eminent  Christian,  "  He  was  not 
only  pious,  he  was  goody  A  true  distinction 
that.  Now  if  the  Lord  Jesus  dwell  in  our  hearts 
more  abundantly,  the  moral  sense  will  be  quick- 
ened, the  heart  will  be  cleaner,  and  in  that  holy 


120  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

atmosphere  fraud  and  falsehood  and  greed  and 
sophistry  and  injustice  cannot  breathe.  When 
questions  of  right  and  wrong  arise  we  will  give 
Christ  the  casting  vote.  Our  whole  daily  con- 
duct will  be  straightforward  and  by  the  air-line, 
because  we  give  the  helm  into  the  hand  of  Him 
with  whom  is  no  variableness  or  shadow  of  turn- 
in  2:. 

Are  all  these  graces  of  faith,  power,  joy,  love, 
and  practical  godliness  attainable?  Of  course 
they  are.  Yonder  tree  has  been  made  luxuriant 
in  foliage  and  germs  of  fruit  by  simply  drawing 
the  vital  sap  up  into  trunk  and  boughs.  Even 
so,  if  you  will  let  Christ  have  unhindered  flow 
into  your  will  and  your  affections,  you  w^U  be 
not  barren  or  unfruitful,  but  will  abound  in  the 
work  of  the  I^ord.  Take  a  large  life  with  yoM 
into  heaven. 


PREPAID   PRAYKKS.  121 


PREPAID  PRAYERS. 


I  MET  with  this  expression  lately;  and  while 
it  is  open  to  criticism,  it  snggests  a  vitally  im- 
portant truth,  a  truth  also  which  many  good 
people  ignore,  and  therefore  their  prayers  are  un- 
productive of  any  blessings.  If  we  expect  a  let- 
ter to  reach  its  destination  we  prepay  it;  if  we  do 
not  value  it  enough  to  put  a  two-cent  stamp  on 
it,  then  the  document  is  left  in  the  limbo  of  the 
dead-letter  office.  It  is  a  lamentable  fact  that 
there  is  a  dcad-praycr  office  also,  and  the  number 
of  well- worded  and  orthodox  petitions  which  are 
more  likely  to  go  thither  than  to  reach  the  ear  of 
the  infinite  Love  is  past  calculation. 

All  valuable  things  are  costly.  What  we  call 
*'//r^  salvation  "  cost  the  Son  of  God  all  the  hu- 
miliations of  his  earthly  mission  and  all  the 
aeonies  of  Gethsemane  and  Golg:otha.  Nor  can 
any  sinner  obtain  the  benefit  of  Christ's  atone- 

i6 


122  NEWI.Y   ENLISTED. 

ment  except  at  the  price  of  personal  obedience  to 
the  Saviour.  Our  Lord  wrapped  up  a  very  pro- 
found and  practical  truth  in  that  parable  of  the 
man  who,  desiring  to  possess  the  "treasure  hid 
in  a  field,''  gladly  sold  all  he  had  and  went  and 
bought  that  field.  No  one  can  secure  the  salva- 
tion of  his  soul  unless  he  or  she  is  willing  to  pay 
the  price  which  God  demands;  that  price  is  the 
renunciation  of  the  most  darling  sins  and  the 
surrender  of  the  heart  and  the  life  to  Jesus 
Christ.  If  you  want  Christ  himself,  you  must 
give  Christ  yourself.  Here  is  the  pinch  that 
keeps  millions  out  of  heaven.  It  kept  out  Felix 
and  Agrippa  and  all  others  who  have  been  un- 
willino:  to  submit  to  God's  terms.  ''You  must 
give  up  your  bottle  or  give  up  your  soul,"  said  a 
plain-spoken  pastor  to  a  gentleman  in  his  inqui- 
ry-room. The  poor  slave  of  the  drink  hesitated, 
and  then  went  away  clinging  to  his  decanter  ! 
The  decisive  battle  for  salvation  is  commonly 
fought  over  the  favorite  sins  ;  for  the  Master  has 
declared  that  unless  a  man  deny  sc/f  and  take  up 
his  cross,  he  cannot  be  His  disciple. 


PREPAID   PRAYERS.  1 23 

The  same  principle  applies  to  a  vast  portion 
of  all  our  prayers.  All  valuable  things  cost 
something,  and  petitions  to  God  are  no  exception 
to  the  rule.  Prayer  is  a  process  in  which  two 
parties  are  concerned — the  human  petitioner  and 
the  divine  bestower  of  blessings.  All  God's 
promises  have  their  conditions;  we  must  comply 
with  those  conditions,  or  we  cannot  expect  the 
blessings  coupled  with  the  promises.  No  farmer 
is  such  an  idiot  as  to  found  his  expectation  of  a 
crop  of  wheat  on  God's  general  promise  of  seed- 
time and  harvest,  and  yet  put  in  no  plough  and 
sow  no  grain.  He  first  does  his  part,  and  then 
can  reasonably  ask  the  God  of  nature  to  give 
him  a  harvest.  In  prayer  we  must  do  our  part 
if  w^e  expect  that  the  infinite  Giver  will  do  his 
part;  there  is  a  legitimate  sense  in  which  all  of 
us  are  to  do  our  utmost  in  the  answering  of  our 
own  petitions. 

At  a  missionary  convention  a  venerated  min- 
ister was  called  upon  to  oflfer  a  prayer.  He 
halted  and  began  to  fumble  in  his  pocket.  "  Fa- 
ther A ,  they  want  you  to  pray,"  whispered 


124  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

somebody  in  his  ear.  *'Yes,  yes,''  replied  the 
wise  old  man,  "but  I  cannot  pray  until  I  have 
given  something."  After  he  had  contributed  his 
quota  towards  sending  abroad  the  gospel  he 
could  with  a  clear  conscience  implore  the  King 
of  heaven  to  give  that  gospel  wide  sweep  and 
sway.  The  old  man  prepaid  his  prayer.  For 
the  Christian  churches  of  this  age  to  offer  the  pe- 
tition, "Thy  kingdom  come!"  and  then  expend 
only  ten  millions  (the  world  over)  in  the  enter- 
prise of  Foreign  Missions,  looks  almost  like  a 
solemn  farce.  As  far  as  God's  people  are  willing 
to  prepay  their  prayers  by  bestowing  money  and 
talents  and  toils  for  the  conversion  of  the  world, 
just  so  far  are  their  prayers  answered.  God  has 
no  blessings  for  stingy  pockets.  A  great  deal  of 
the  "talk  of  the  lips"  in  prayer-meetings  is 
mere  talk,  and  it  "  tendeth  to  penury." 

What  is  true  of  pecuniary  sacrifices  as  an  evi- 
dence of  sincerity  is  equally  true  of  personal  ef- 
forts. Often  when  I  listen  to  requests  for  prayer 
for  the  conversion  of  a  husband  or  a  son  or  a 
Sabbath  scholar,  I  say  to  myself,  "  How  much  is 


PREPAID  PRAYERS.  1 25 

that  person  doing-  for  the  conversion  of  that  hus- 
band or  child  or  scholar?"  The  Christian  wife 
who  does  her  utmost  to  make  her  daily  religion 
attractive  to  her  unconverted  husband  prepays 
her  own  prayer.  She  works  with  the  Holy 
Spirit — not  against  Him.  A  noble  woman  in 
my  church  was  instrumental  in  the  conversion  of 
her  whole  Bible-class  ;  she  prepaid  her  prayer 
for  them  by  the  most  winsome  personal  efforts 
for  their  salvation.  God  never  defaults;  but  he 
demands  that  we  prove  our  faith  by  our  works, 
and  that  we  never  ask  for  a  blessing  that  we  are 
not  ready  to  labor  for.  Much  of  the  pious  prat- 
tle in  prayer-meetings  for  a  "  revival"  comes  to 
nothing  because  the  one  who  utters  the  empty 
formula  is  not  reviving  himself.  He  pretends  to 
ask  the  Almighty  to  do  what  he  will  not  lift  one 
lazy  finger  for;  such  prayer  is  a  sevei-e  self-con- 
demnation. Let  us  aU  beware  lest  our  own 
prayers  rise  up  in  judgment  against  us. 

Genuine,  fervent,  self-denying,  and  effective 
prayer  is  always  prepaid.  The  offerer  of  it  is 
willing  to  make  any  sacrifice  in  order  to  secure 


126  '  NEWLY    ENLISTED. 

the  blessing  sought.  If  time  or  money  or  labor 
or  penitential  putting  away  of  sin  or  any  other 
condition  be  required,  the  condition  is  cheerfully 
performed.  In  brief-^ — every  prayer  may  be  said 
to  be  prepaid  for  whose  fulfilment  we  are  ready, 
at  whatever  cost,  to  cooperate  with  the  divine 
Spirit. 


A  christian's  staying  power.        127 


A  CHRISTIAN'S  STAYING  POWER. 


A  ROBUST  Christian  was  the  apostle  James. 
There  is  a  tradition  that  he  prayed  until  his 
knees  were  as  hard  as  the  knees  of  a  camel,  and 
that  the  good  people  in  Jerusalem  vied  with  each 
other  in  touching  the  hem  of  his  robe.  From 
Jerusalem  he  sent  out  an  epistle  to  his  dispersed 
brethren  which  reads  like  the  bulletin  of  a  field- 
marshal,  and  the  opening  sentences  have  the 
ring  of  a  bugle.  "Hail,  brethren!"  he  ex- 
claims, "count  it  all  joy  when  ye  fall  into 
manifold  trials,  knowing  that  the  proof  of  your 
faith  worketh  patience.  And  let  patience  have 
its  perfect  work."  The  Greek  word  here  trans- 
lated "patience"  literally  signifies  staying:  then 
it  came  to  mean  persistent  endurance,  whether 
in  active  exertion  or  under  acute  suffering.  It 
is  the  staying  power  of  the  rower  in  a  boat-race, 
of  the  warrior  in  a  fierce  battle  charge,  and  of  the 
porter  weighed  down  by  a  heavy  burden. 


128  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

Patience,  wliicli  is  one  of  the  grandest  of  the 
Christian  graces,  is  often  dwarfed  into  a  mere 
stoical  submission  akin  to  that  of  a  savage  tor- 
tured at  the  stake.  What  passes  for  patience 
with  some  people  is  rather  a  callousness  of  heart. 
Under  severe  trials  the  sensibilities  have  become 
as  callous  as  the  horny  hands  of  a  furnace-man 
in  handling  hot  iron.  A  widow,  who  after  the 
death  of  her  husband  had  lost  two  children,  said 
to  her  pastor,  "That  first  grief  made  such  a  huge 
hole  in  my  heart  that  it  has  never  held  any  sor- 
row since  that  time."  From  such  sullen  apathy 
which  is  past  feeling  the  superb  staying  power 
of  a  true  Christian  is  as  far  removed  as  faith  is 
from  blind  credulity.  Our  blessed  Lord  was 
keenly  sensitive  to  suffering,  but  how  unflinch- 
ingly he  endured  the  severe  strain  of  dealing 
with  the  sick  and  the  suflfering,  the  bigoted  and 
the  ungrateful!  Homeless,  he  never  complained ;h 
under  the  vexations  of  his  crude  disciples  and 
irritating  opponents  he  never  lost  temper ;  the 
most  fiendish  assaults  of  his  persecutors  never 
wrung  a  m.urmur  from  his  lips.     Kis  silence  was 


A  christian's  staying  power.         129 

sublimer  than  any  other  man's  utterances.  At 
the  end  of  his  life  of  humiliation  he  leaves  only 
a  handful  of  acknowledged  followers,  calmly 
assured  that  out  of  that  little  band  of  disciples 
would  germinate  the  Christianity  which  shall 
yet  dominate  the  globe!  Patience  had  its  perfect 
work  with  him.  It  is  one  of  the  most  Christly 
qualities  in  a  well-developed  religious  life. 

I  have  been  watching  the  careers  of  young 
men  by  the  thousand  in  this  busy  city  for  over 
thirty  years,  and  I  find  that  one  chief  difference 
between  the  successful  and  the  failures  lies  in 
the  single  element  of  staying  power.  Perma- 
nent success  is  oftener  won  by  holding  on  than 
by  sudden  dash,  however  brilliant.  The  easily 
discouraged  who  are  pushed  back  by  a  straw  are 
all  the  time  dropping  to  the  rear,  to  perish  or  be 
carried  along  on  the  stretcher  of  charity.  They 
who  understand  and  practise  Abraham  Lin- 
coln's homely  maxim  of  "pegging  away"  have 
achieved  the  solidest  success.  It  was  the  honest 
boast  of  an  eminent  New  Yorker  that  the  first 
dollar  he  ever  earned  was  for  hammering  down 

Newly  Enllstel.  17 


130  NEWI.Y   ENLISTED. 

paving  stones  in  the  street,  and  that  went  to  the 
captain  of  the  sloop  who  brought  him  a  penni- 
less youth  to  the  city.  Oliver  Wendell  Holmes' 
couplet  describes  in  a  rather  coarse  and  carnal 
fashion  what  is  vital  Christian  grace: 

"  Stick  to  your  aim  ;  the  mongrel's  hold  may  slip, 
But  crowbars  can't  unloose  the  mastijflf's  grip." 

If  staying  power  is  indispensable  in  all  secu- 
lar pursuits,  it  is  even  more  so  in  the  spiritual 
life.  Young  converts  come  into  our  churches 
by  platoons,  especially  in  seasons  of  revival. 
Many  fall  into  the  fatal  delusion  that  the  main 
thing  is  done;  wdiereas  it  is  only  begun.  They 
have  enlisted  for  Christ;  they  have,  if  genuine 
converts,  won  the  first  battle.  But  the  life-cam- 
paign is  yet  before  them.  The  hardest  fighting, 
my  young  brother,  will  not  be  with  the  hostile 
forces  in  a  wicked  world,  but  with  your  own  self. 
To  stand  the  sneers  of  scoffers  requires  some 
courage;  to  resist  the  undercurrents  of  tempta-. 
tion  requires  the  strong  anchorage  of  godly  prin^ 
ciple.  But  the  mastery  of  yourself  is  the  great 
achievement.    To  hold  temper  in  perfect  control. 


A  christian's  stayixg  power.         i^i 

to  keejD  base  passions  subdued,  to  keep  your  pow- 
ers and  purposes  true  and  straight  to  the  one 
purpose  of  serving,  obeying,  and  honoring  Jesus 
Christ — this  is  the  secret  of  a  strong  Christian 
life.  The  Revised  Version  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment brings  out  tliis  idea  beautifully  in  the  pas- 
sage "  In  your  patience  ye  shall  win  your  souls." 
Before  you  can  win  anybody  else's  soul  to  Christ 
you  must  "  win  "  your  own.  This  can  only  be 
accomplished  by  steady  conflict  with  sin,  by  com- 
pletely joining  your  weakness  to  the  almighty 
strength  of  your  Saviour.  Christ's  mastery  of 
you  will  give  you  self-mastery. 

Paul  did  not  claim  to  be  a  perfect  man;  but 
he  had  a  prodigious  staying  power.  "I  keep 
my  body  under,"  he  exclaims.  As  a  boxer  who 
is  in  a  sharp  encounter,  he  constantly  beats 
down  with  steady  and  sturdy  blows  the  unruly 
appetites  and  lusts.  The  moment  that  a  Chris- 
tian lets  the  carnal  nature  get  the  upper  hand 
he  is  overthrown.  Nor  can  he  hold  down  the 
"old  man"  of  sin  except  as  he  holds  to  Christ 
and  is  held  bv  him.     I^et  everv  voung  convert 


132  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

carefully  and  squarely  count  the  cost  of  a  vigor- 
ous, successful  Christian  life;  it  need  not  dis- 
courage or  appall  him;  yet  he  will  be  pretty  sure 
to  become  an  early  deserter  unless  he  equips 
himself  for  a  life-campaign  under  the  Captain  of 
his  salvation. 

Impatience  is  the  prevailing  sin  of  the  times; 
impatience  to  be  suddenly  rich,  impatience  un- 
der restraint,  impatience  with  slow  and  thorough 
processes.  A  Christian  character  is  no  more  to 
be  finished  in  a  day  than  was  one  of  Thorwald- 
sen's  statues.  You  have  got  to  learn  patience 
by  some  sharp  disappointments.  You  have  not 
learned  the  prime  secret  of  acceptable  prayer  if 
you  have  not  learned  to  ^"^  wait  quietly  on  the 
Lord."  We  cannot  either  scold  or  tease  our 
Heavenly  Father  into  granting  our  desires. 
Faith  has  nothing  to  do  with  fretting,  either 
under  a  hard  lot  or  under  the  delays  of  prayed- 
for  blessings.  Patient  prayer  is  powerful  prayer. 
If  thou  hast  come  into  Christ's  school,  submit 
to  his  lessons  and  his  tasks;  one  of  them  is — 
*'  Not  as  I  will,  but  as  Thou  wult." 


A   CHRISTIAN'S   STAYING    POWKR.  1 33 

This  virtue  of  holding  on  is  absolutely  indis- 
pensable to  all  successful  Christian  work.  How 
many  volunteers  are  constantly  dropping  out  of 
our  Sabbath-school  teacherships  and  out  of  mis- 
sion work  as  soon  as  the  novelty  is  off!  How 
many  ministers  are  begging  for  release  from 
^^ hard  fields,"  some  of  them  ready  to  run  when 
God  may  be  just  ready  to  send  the  shower  to  start 
the  seed  they  have  sown  !  Too  much  of  the 
Christian  labor  in  our  land  ends  in  a  spasmodic 
spirt  of  enthusiasm.  "Well-doing"  comes  to 
nothing  unless  there  be  "patient  continuance" 
in  it.  Brethren,  let  us  remember  that  Christian 
patience  is  not  only  a  waiting  on  God,  it  is  a 
steady  working  for  God.  Christ  in  us  is  the  only 
staying  power.  The  soldier  who  stands  fire  to 
the  last  shot  wins  the  victory.  And  up  yonder 
they  who  are  arrayed  in  the  white  robes  are  they 
who  "came  out  of  great  tribulations."  "Here 
is  the  patience  of  the  saints;  here  are  they  that 
kept  the  commandments  of  God  and  the  faith  of 
Jesus!" 


134  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


BRIGHT  CHRISTIANS. 


The  houses  of  the  people  of  Palestine  in  an- 
cient times  were  not  lighted  by  candles;  there- 
fore the  translation  of  the  fifteenth  verse  of  the 
fifth  chapter  of  Matthew  in  our  common  version 
is  not  correct.  In  the  house  of  the  poorest  peas- 
ant was  a  lamp.  A  small  cup  or  other  vessel 
was  filled  with  oil,  a  bit  of  linen  rag  or  a  wick 
was  set  afloat  in  it,  and  the  simple  contrivance 
was  set  on  a  lamp-stand.  To  put  it  under  a 
couch  or  to  hide  it  under  a  grain  measure  would 
be  absurd.  Our  Lord,  in  his  Sermon  on  the 
Mount,  alludes  to  the  familiar  lamp  in  every 
dwelling,  and  then  says  to  his  followers,  ^^So  let 
your  light  shine  before  men."  This  is  the  man- 
ner in  which  every  Christian  should  be  luminous. 
The  word  "  so  "  refers  back  to  the  previous  verse. 
The  motive  for  doing  this  then  follows,  namely, 
*'  that  men  may  see  your  good  works  and  glorify 


BRIGHT   CHRISTIANS.  I35 

your  Father  which  is  in  heaven."  Not  for  mere 
ostentation  and  self-glorification  were  they  to 
make  a  display  of  their  religion,  neither  were  they 
to  conceal  it  by  either  indolence  or  cowardice. 

The  crying  want  of  the  times  is  more  bright 
CJiristiaiis.  There  are  quite  too  many  church 
members  who  were  kindled  for  a  little  while — 
perhaps  during  the  heat  of  a  revival  season — and 
then  the  light  has  either  been  smuggled  into  a 
dark  lantern,  or  else  allowed  to  die  down  into  a 
feeble  glimmer,  barely  visible  through  the  smoke. 
For  no  merely  selfish  purpose  does  Jesus  Christ 
bestow  his  converting  grace  upon  any  man. 
He  touched  your  heart  with  his  illuminating 
grace  chiefly  that  you  might  impart  the  benefit 
of  your  light  to  others  and  glorify  him.  He 
commanded  the  light  to  shine  into  the  darkness 
of  your  sinful  soul  that  you  vs\\^\.  give  the  light 
of  the  knowledo^e  of  God  as  seen  in  the  face  of 
Jesus  to  all  with  whom  you  come  in  contact. 
You  may  not  be  a  magnificent  Fresnel-burner 
like  a  Chalmers  or  a  Wesley  in  their  day,  or 
like  a  Spurgeon  or  a  Shaftesbury  or  a  Dodge  in 


J 


6  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 


our  times.  But  the  properties  of  light  are  the 
same  in  a  household  lamp  that  they  are  in  the 
huge  luminary  that  flashes  from  the  tower  at 
Sandy  Hook;  and  in  your  little  circle  there  is 
just  as  much  need  of  a  bright  Christian  as  there 
is  in  the  most  conspicuous  pulpit  of  Christen- 
dom. 

If  you  neglect  to  let  your  light  shine,  how- 
ever humble  it  may  be,  not  only  will  your  own 
character  suffer,  but  somebody  else  w^ll  be  the 
worse  for  it.  The  simple  failure  of  a  signal-man 
to  swing  his  lantern  at  the  right  time  has  sent  a 
railway  train  into  deadly  ruin.  Your  failure  to 
utter  the  right  word,  to  do  the  right  thing,  or  to 
exert  the  right  influence,  may  be  sending  some 
others  off  the  track  in  the  same  fatal  fashion.  I 
know  of  certain  households — perhaps  yours  may 
be  one — in  which  the  lamp  smokes  more  than  it 
shines.  That  son  would  not  be  so  troubled  with 
skepticism  if  he  saw  a  more  attractive  living 
evidence  of  Christianity  in  the  daily  conduct  of 
his  professedly  Christian  parents.  Another  son 
would   not  be  seen  so  often  on  his  way  to  the 


BRIGHT   CHRISTIANS.  1 37 

saloon  or  some  other  dangerous  haunt  if  the 
torch  of  both  warning  and  example  were  held  up 
faithfully  and  lovingly.  It  is  almost  hopeless  to 
expect  conversions  in  some  families.  One  rea- 
son is  that  there  is  a  lamp  of  profession  there 
Avhich  smokes  foully  instead  of  beaming  brightly. 
The  lio-ht  that  is  in  that  house  is  fast  becomiuQ: 
darkness.  The  oil  has  given  out.  Love  of  the 
world,  or  the  greed  of  selfishness  or  some  other 
sin,  has  extinguished  the  love  of  Christ.  The 
real  cause  of  all  spiritual  declension  is  the  lack 
of  a  Christly  love  and  loyalty  in  the  heart. 
When  people  are  full  of  any  subject  they  will 
speak  out;  they  cannot  help  it.  When  your  soul 
is  on  fire  with  the  love  of  Jesus  and  of  your  fel- 
low-men, you  will  burn  and  shine  unconsciously. 
Probably  the  most  effective  good  which  most 
genuine  Christians  do  is  in  the  way  of  steady, 
silent,  and  unconscious  reflection  of  Jesus  Christ 
in  their  daily  conduct.  To  preach  a  sermon  or 
teach  a  mission-school  class,  or  distribute  Bibles 
or  bread  among  the  needy,  is  a  direct,  premedi- 
tated act  of  lamp-bearing.     But  to  live  along  day 

iS 


13S  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

after  day  luminously  reflecting  Christ  in  word 
and  deed  at  home,  in  the  store,  in  the  shop,  and 
everywhere  else,  is  just  ^^  letting  ^\\^  light  shine" 
of  its  own  sweet  accord.  That  is  the  sort  of  reli- 
gion that  tells.  And  however  glibly  Brother 
A may  speak  in  the  prayer-meeting  or  how- 
ever  brightly  Sister   B may   shine   in   her 

Dorcas  Society  or  ''holiness  meeting,"  yet  if 
they  end  in  smoke  at  home,  theirs  is  but  a  dark 
and  dreary  dwelling.  Trim  the  household  lamp, 
good  friends.  A  revival  of  thorough  Jiome  piety 
is  the  most  needed  revival  in  these  times  for 
the   well-beinor   of    both   church    and   common- 

o 

wealth. 

Light  is  a  combination  of  many  rays,  and 
each  white  ray  a  combination  of  many  colors. 
If  you  apply  the  spectrum  to  a  bright  Christian 
you  will  find  that  he  sheds  out  various  graces. 
Chiefest  of  all  is  the  ray  of  love.  This  is  the 
supreme  grace  which  most  completely  reflects 
Christ  Jesus  and  which  imparts  the  golden  efful- 
gence to  a  true,  fervent  Christian  life.  It  is  not 
a  flash  of  sentiment  or  fitful  gush  of  emotion,  but 


BRIGHT   CHRISTIANS.  1 39 

a  steady  anthracite  flame,  which  glows  all  day 
and  all  nii^ht  because  the  divine  fire  is  burninir 
in  the  soul.  "So  have  I  loved  you,"  saith  the 
IMaster;  "continue  ye  in  my  love."  Where  this 
lamp  beams  the  humblest  home  will  be  bright- 
ened, the  hardest  pillow  will  be  softened,  the 
coarsest  fare  will  be  sweetened.  Love  is  the 
best  grace  Christ  can  give  us,  for  in  it  he  gives 
himself.  It  is  the  best  we  can  return  to  him,  for 
in  it  we  give  ourselves. 

A  bright  Christian  will  fling  out  the  steady 
rays  of  cheerfulness.  This  is  not  an  unsaintly 
quality;  a  dark,  foggy  day  is  not  half  as  heav- 
enly as  a  sunny  day.  The  natural  note  of  a  bird 
is  not  a  scream  or  a  groan,  but  a  spontaneous 
song.  When  a  young  man  or  woman  becomes 
converted  to  Christ  none  of  their  companions 
ought  to  say,  "They  used  to  be  pleasant,  but 
how  dull  and  mopy  they  are  now!"  Nor  ought 
a  Christian  ever  to  enter  any  circle  with  the 
chill  of  an  icicle  or  the  depressing  effect  of  a  wet 
blanket.  And  there  is  another  radiation  which 
a  bright  Christian  will   emit,  and  that  is  good 


140  NKWLY   ENI.ISTED. 

temper.  We  too  often  think  of  ill  temper  as  a 
constitutional  weakness  or  a  mere  unhappy  in- 
firmity. Prof  Drummond  has  pungently  said  in 
one  of  his  late  addresses,  ^'111  temper  is  a  sin, 
one  of  the  blackest  of  sins;  it  is  the  symptom  of 
an  unlovinor  nature  at  bottom.  The  man  who 
has  it  needs  to  have  his  whole  nature  sweetened. 
Such  a  man  would  make  heaven  miserable;  he 
must  be  born  aofain  before  he  can  enter  it." 

Here  are  a  few  of  the  rays  which  a  bright 
Christian  will  reflect  while  he  is  reflecting  Christ. 
Trim  your  lamp,  brother.  Feed  it  afresh  with 
.prayer  for  more  oil  and  with  fresh  inlettings  of 
Jesus  into  your  soul.  Carry  your  lamp  always 
with  you  as  the  miners  carry  theirs  on  their  hats. 
The  world  may  discover  Jesus  Christ  in  you 
when  they  would  find  him  in  no  other  way. 
Light  other  people's  lamps.  A  bright  Christian 
is  a  ray  shot  from  the  throne  of  heaven  into  this 
dark  world.  "  Keep  your  loins  girded  and  your 
lamps  burning." 


LABOR   FOR   SOULS»  141 


LABOR  FOR  SOUIvS. 


(( 


You  know  a  great  deal,  Dr.  Beeclier,"  said 
a  man  to  the  Boanerges  on  Litclifield  Hill,  "but 
what  is  the  greatest  of  all  things?"  The  quick 
reply  was,  "It  is  not  theology,  it  is  not  contro- 
versy; it  is  saving-  sonhy  This  has  been  the 
keynote  with  all  the  choicest  spirits  in  Christ's 
army  corps  from  the  days  of  Paul,  whose  motto 
was,  "  If  by  all  means  I  may  save  some  of  them.'* 
No  one  has  come  up  to  this  high  calling  until  he 
has  learned  to  love  an  immortal  soul  irrespect- 
ive of  its  trappings  and  surroundings — the  soul 
of  a  beq-orar  as  much  as  that  of  a  millionaire. 
David  Brainerd — who  may  perhaps  be  regarded 
as  the  holiest  man  the  American  church  has 
seen — had  for  his  parish  the  red  barbarians  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware.  "I  care  not,"  he 
says,  "where  I  live  or  how  I  live  or  what  hard- 
ships I  go  through,  so  that  I  can  but  gain  souls 


142  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

to  Christ.  While  I  am  asleep  I  dream  of  these 
things;  as  soon  as  I  awake,  the  first  thing  I 
think  of  is  this  great  work.  All  my  desire  is 
the  conversion  of  sinners,  and  all  my  hope  is 
in  God." 

These  are  apples  of  gold  for  us  pastors  and 
for  all  living  Christians.  Not  vague  effort  which 
ends  in  smoke,  but  direct  effort  brought  to  bear 
upon  a  sotiL  Men  are  saved  or  lost  individually. 
The  sagacious  apostle  did  not  evaporate  the  idea 
into  any  vague  generalities  about  "reaching  the 
masses,"  etc.;  he  distinctly  says  that  "he  who 
converteth  a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way 
shall  save  a  soul  from  death  and  sh'all  cover 
a  multitude  of  sins."  A  single  soul  was  a 
sufficient  audience  for  the  Son  of  God  at  Sy- 
char's  well  and  in  the  inquiry  room  with  Nico- 
demus. 

To  convert  sisfuifies  to  turn  around  and  start 
in  the  opposite  direction.  Conversion  is  the 
penitent  sinner's  own  act  in  turning  from  that 
path  which  leads  hellward  and  setting  his  foot- 
steps into  the  path  of  obedience  to  God.     Regen- 


LABOR   FOR   SOULS.  1 43 

eration  is  the  work  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  who  influ- 
ences and  enables  the  sinner  to  turn.  The  di- 
vine Spirit  and  the  human  will  work  in  blessed 
partnership;  neither  can  do  the  work  without 
the  other.  But  the  apostle  James  recognizes  a 
third  party  when  he  speaks  of  one's  converting 
a  sinner  from  the  error  of  his  way.  Then  it  ap- 
pears that  it  is  possible  for  me  to  convert  my 
neighbor.  Not,  of  course,  that  I  can  change  his 
heart  or  regenerate  him  into  the  new  life;  a 
saved  sinner  is  not,  nor  ever  can  be,  a  sinner's 
saviour.  Jesus  alone  can  be  that.  But  I  can 
bring  an  influence  to  bear  upon  my  neighbor;  I 
can  ply  him  with  arguments  and  entreaties;  I  can 
put  God's  claims  before  him;  I  can  set  gospel 
religion  before  him  attractively  by  kind  acts  and 
consistent  example;  and  so  I  may  move  him  to 
move  himself  towards  Christ.  This  is  what  \^•e 
understand  by  a  Christian's  converting  a  soul. 
Self-conceited  itinerants  do,  indeed,  often  boast 
of  the  number  of  tJieir  converts,  which  prove  to 
be  as  worthless  specimens  as  Whitefield's  tipsy 
friend  who  claimed  to  be  his  convert.     But  still 


144  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

the  mighty  fact  remains,  for  God's  Word  declares 
it,  that  a  servant  of  Jesus  can  convert  a  sinner 
from  his  evil  way  and  thus  save  a  soul  from 
death. 

This  is  a  tremendous  trust.  No  power  vested 
in  any  human  being  can  compare  with  this  one 
of  moving  an  immortal  creature  from  the  slavery 
of  Satan  and  the  doom  of  hell  into  a  pathway  of 
life  everlasting.  What  a  trust,  brother!  Think 
of  it.  Father,  mother,  teacher.  Christian  friend, 
just  think  what  a  stupendous  prize  God  sets  be- 
fore you  and  what  a  prodigious  responsibility 
He  lays  upon  you!  God  seems  to  say  to  you, 
*'Here  is  this  immortal  soul,  worth  more  than 
all  worlds,  for  Jesus  died  for  it;  here  is  this  soul; 
now  convert  him  unto  Me.  I  put  him  in  your 
way;  I  give  you  the  opportunity;  I  will  supply 
you  with  the  help;  save  this  precious  soul!'V 
This  is  not  profanity,  nor  is  it  poetry.  God  does 
this  very  thing  when  he  commissions  his  children 
to  pray,  toil,  and  live  for  the  conversion  of  the 
lost.  Nay,  he  declares  that  if  we  do  not  warn 
the  sinner  to  turn  from,  his  wicked  way,  that  soul 


LABOR   FOR   SOULS.  1 45 

shall  die  in  his  iniquity,  but  "his  blood  will  I  re- 
quire at  thy  hand!" 

The  threatening  for  unfaithfulness  is  as  tre- 
mendous as  the  trust;  the  reward  of  fidelity  is 
glorious  enough  to  whet  the  appetite  of  an  arch- 
angel. It  will  be  a  crown  indeed  to  be  laid  at 
Jesus'  feet  if  we  discover  even  a  single  soul  in 
heaven  whom  you  or  I  have  been  instrumental 
in  converting  from  the  error  of  his  way.  We 
pity  those  who  have  no  such  star-crowns. 

I  am  confident  that  we  who  call  ourselves 
Christians  do  not  begin  to  face  these  mighty 
facts  as  we  ought;  we  do  not  set  squarely  before 
our  eyes  the  trust  of  souls  and  our  vast  accounta- 
bilities for  them.  The  more  we  do  this  the  more 
intensely  will  we  give  ourselves  to  this  most 
Christlike  endeavor.  Our  own  heart  must  first 
be  moved  for  the  one  we  may  convert.  Mere 
hap-hazard  counts  for  nothing.  Fix  your  eyes 
on  the  friend  whom  you  mean  to  reach  and  to 
labor  for.  Take  hold  of  that  case  as  Harlan 
Page  took  hold  of  young  Edwin  F.  Hatfield, 
with   a   grip  of  personal    interest — loving    him 

Newly  EnliBtcd.  IQ 


146  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

enoiigli  to  tell  him  plain  truth.  Watcli  oppor- 
tunities; in  doing  do  not  overdo.  He  that  win- 
neth  souls  is  wise  because  he  first  asks  God  to 
make  him  so.  Worrying  an  unconverted  friend 
by  incessant  "nagging"  at  him,  preaching  at 
him  in  a  certain  Pharisaic  tone,  or  addressing 
him  in  a  public  way  so  as  to  mortify  or  disgust 
him — all  such  blunders  show  more  zeal  than 
common  sense. 

But  remember  that  the  most  terrible  blunder 
of  all  is  to  let  a  soul  go  to  perdition  without  one 
effort  to  save  it!  It  seems  to  me,  sometimes, 
that  it  will  be  enough  to  make  us  half  crazy  in 
heaven  not  to  find  there  some  souls  that  we 
ought  to  have  striven,  yes,  "agonized,"  to  bring 
there.  And  there  is  no  preparation  for  heaven 
that  can  compare  with  the  unselfish,  patient, 
prayer-steeped,  and  Christlike  labor  and  life  for 
perishing  souls.  The  nearer  a  soul  is  to  us,  the 
greater  the  responsibility  for  it.  May  God  help 
us  all  to  follow  "Weeks  of  Prayer"  with  many 
weeks  of  putting  prayer  into  practice! 


THE  WISK   AND   WINSOME   WAI.K.  147 


THE  WISE  AND  WINSOME  WALK. 


The  early  Christian  church  was  born  in  a 
prayer-meeting,  and  baptised  by  the  Holy  Spirit 
on  the  day  of  Pentecost  ;  it  then  set  about  its 
heaven-appointed  mission  of  converting  men  to 
Christ.  Peter's  pungent  sermon  to  the  Jerusa- 
lem sinners  pierced  their  hearts  with  conviction, 
and  three  thousand  were  converted  in  a  sinfjle 
day.  The  book  of  the  Acts  of  the  Apostles  is 
largely  a  record  of  personal  labors  for  winning 
souls;  the  Epistles  are  not  addressed  to  the  hea- 
then or  to  impenitent  sinners,  but  to  the  newly- 
born  churches,  teaching  them  Jiow  to  live.  In- 
struction in  the  Christian  life  is  the  main  topic 
of  Paul  and  Peter,  John  and  James.  And  one 
idea  runs  through  them  all,  and  that  is  that 
Christ's  people  are  to  live  in  such  a  way  as  not 
only  to  honor  their  Master,  but  in  such  a  way  as 
to  attract  the  outside  world  to  him. 


148  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

"Walk  ill  wisdom  towards  them  tliat  are 
withotct^^^  was  one  of  Paul's  pithy  and  pungent 
injunctions.  Christ  came  into  this  world  to  seek 
and  to  save  those  who  were  lost.  His  commis- 
sion to  his  disciples  was  to  go  after  the  "out- 
siders" and  to  bring  them  in.  That  commission 
is  as  bindino^  on  Christians  to-dav  as  it  was 
eighteen  hundred  years  ago.  Every  one  now 
who  enters  the  church  of  Jesus  Christ  enters  not 
only  into  peculiar  relations  with  Christ,  but  into 
peculiar  duties  towards  the  unconverted.  "Ye 
are  my  witnesses;"  "Ye  are  the  light  of  the 
world,  so  let  your  lights  shine  that  ye  may  be 
seen  of  men."  The  outside  world  watches  us 
sharply,  and  our  Master  intended  that  we  should 
be  watched.  It. is  a  stereotyped  truth  that  the 
professed  Christian  is  the  world's  Bible.  He  is 
the  only  Bible  that  the  majority  of  outsiders  ever 
look  at.  They  form  their  impressions  of  Chris- 
tianity, not  as  it  is  revealed  in  the  Holy  Scrip- 
tures, but  as  it  is  revealed  in  us.  They  do  not 
study  God's  Bible,  but  they  do  study  church 
members.     Now,  if  we  are  the  world's  Bible,  we 


TIIIC    WISE    AND   WINSOMIC    WAI^K.  149 

ought  to  live  in  such  a  way  as  not  to  require  any 
commentary  to  explain  us.  If  we  are  doorkeep- 
ers to  the  way  of  life  and  the  fold  of  Christ,  we 
are  put  there  to  attract  the  outsiders  and  draw 
them  in — not  to  block  the  door  and  drive  them 
off.  Every  inconsistent  church  member  is  guilty 
of  a  triple  sin — first  towards  Christ,  secondly  to- 
wards his  own  soul,  and  then  towards  the  impen- 
itent whom  he  repels  when  he  ought  to  be  win- 
ning them. 

I.  What  is  a  "wise  walk  towards  them  that 
are  without"?  In  the  first  place  it  is  such  a 
walk  as  does  not  give  the  lie  to  our  professions. 
We  tell  the  unconverted  that  the  religion  of  Je- 
sus Christ  will  make  them  cheerful  under  trials, 
and  then,  perhaps,  fall  to  fretting  at  Providence 
and  put  on  a  distressing  gloom  as  soon  as  trials 
smite  us  in  the  face.  We  talk  about  patience, 
and  lose  temper  under  the  first  provocation.  In 
the  prayer-meeting  we  pray  as  if  religion  was 
the  "one  thing  needful,"  but  elsewhere  live  as 
if  money-grabbing  or  social  ambition  were  the 
chief  end  of  our  lives.     What  is  all  this  but  be- 


150  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

lying  our  Christianity  and  disgusting  other  peo- 
ple with  it?  If  in  walking  through  an  orchard 
we  pick  up  a  fair-looking  apple,  but  on  putting 
our  teeth  in  it  find  it  setting  our  teeth  on  edge, 
we  fling  it  down  and  try  no  more  from  that  tree. 
So  the  world  tastes  of  Christians,  and  if  they  find 
them  sour  or  bitter  in  temper  or  worm-eaten, 
they  turn  away  in  disgust  and  disappointment. 
*'By  your  fruits  shall  men  know  you,"  says 
our  Master.  We  must  make  our  religion  taste 
sweet  if  we  want  to  recommend  it  to  outsiders. 
When  a  man  of  the  world  says  scoffingly,  "One 
of  your  church  members  cheated  me  in  trade,"  I 
feel  that  the  wickedest  part  of  the  fraud  was  that 
he  robbed  the  man  of  his  respect  for  the  religion 
of  Jesus  Christ.  On  the  other  hand,  a  noble, 
honest,  godly  life  is  the  most  convincing  sermon 
that  can  be  delivered.  Christ's  people  have  got 
to  live  the  world  to  him,  or  the  world  is  lost, 

2.  We  never  can  win  outsiders  by  compromi- 
sing with  them.  "Woe  unto  you  when  all  men 
shall  speak  well  of  you" — i.  e. ,  when  the  lovers 
of  sin  shall  applaud  you.     A  minister  of  Christ 


THE   WISE   AND  WINSOME   WALK.  I51 

may  purchase  his  popularity  at  the  dear  price  of 
losinof  all  his  influence  over  men's  consciences. 
Human  favor  gained  by  connivance  with 
wrong — in  business,  in  politics,  in  social  fash- 
ions— is  treason  to  our  jNIaster.  The  people  of 
the  world  do  not  expect  Christians  to  do  as  they 
do.  When  we  surrender  our  principles  they  are 
secretly  shocked  and  disgusted.  If  we  would 
draw  men  out  of  a  pit  we  must  have  a  firm, 
strong  foothold  or  they  will  draw  us  in.  He 
who  walks  closest  to  Christ  will  have  the  most 
power  to  convert  sinners  to  Him.  When  Jesus 
lives  in  us,  it  is  not  we  who  move  others;  it  is 
the  Christ  incarnated  in  our  conduct.  "  I  tried 
to  be  a  skeptic  when  I  was  a  young  man,"  said 
Cecil;  "but  my  mother's  life  was  too  much  for 
me."  It  was  Jesus  Christ  in  his  good  mother 
that  converted  him. 

3.  This  subject  has  a  vital  bearing  on  all 
direct  efforts  for  the  conversion  of  the  impeni- 
tent. "  He  that  is  wise  winneth  souls;"  that  is 
the  correct  reading  of  the  often  perverted  text. 
It  is  astonishincr  to  observe  how  little  common 


152  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

sense  some  good  people  exhibit  in  their  well- 
meant  efforts  to  bring  their  children  or  their 
scholars  or  their  friends  to  the  Savionr.  A  fa- 
ther will  ask  for  prayers  for  an  unconverted  son, 
and  then  treat  the  boy  so  harshly  or  talk  to  him 
so  tauntingly  as  only  to  harden  him.  Noth- 
ing requires  more  tact  and  gentleness  and  loving 
kindness  than  to  converse  with  persons  on  the 
most  vital  of  all  questions.  If  we  want  to  water 
a  flower  we  don't  dash  a  whole  pailful  on  it  and 
wash  it  out  of  the  ground;  w^e  sprinkle  it.  God 
does  not  send  his  Spirit  as  a  water-spout,  but  as 
a  rain.  Let  us  pray  for  wisdom  when  we  are 
trying  to  win  souls.  Paul  was  consumed  with 
zeal,  and  yet  showed  wonderful  sagacity  in  adap- 
tation to  every  case  he  took  hold  of 

We  must  watch  for  opportunities.  "Walk  in 
wisdom  towards  them  that  are  without,"  says 
the  apostle,  "redeeming  the  time."  The  literal 
meaning  of  the  phrase  is  ^^  buying  the  opporUi- 
nity.^^  Chances  must  be  sought  for  to  put  in  the 
right  word;  and  when  God  gives  us  the  chance 
w^e  must  make  the  most  of  it.     Here  was  the  se- 


THE  WISE  AND  WINSOME  WALK.  153 

cret  of  Harlan  Page's  wonderful  success  in  win- 
ning souls.  He  watched  for  opportunities  and 
then  spoke  a  very  plain,  close-fitting  truth  in  a 
very  loving  way.  There  was  no  cant  about  him. 
The  Spirit  of  God  helped  him,  as  he  will  always 
help  us  if  we  aim  to  please  our  Master. 

We  must  go  on  the  principle  7ioiv  or  never. 
This  will  make  us  eager  to  embrace  opportuni- 
ties; and  in  turn  we  must  urge  the  impenitent  to 
accept  Christ  at  once.  Every  act  of  kindness  we 
can  do  to  the  unconverted  may  help  to  give  us  a 
key  to  their  hearts.  Then  let  us  use  it  to  intro- 
duce our  Master  there.  They  that  are  wise  in 
their  walk  and  wise  in  their  work  may  turn 
many  to  righteousness. 


;o 


154  NEWLY   KNUSTED. 


KEEPING  THE  EYE  ON  JESUS. 


One  of  the  peculiar  glories  of  Christianity  is 
that  it  presents  to  us  a  perfect  Model  for  our 
daily  conduct.  No  other  religion  can  produce  a 
Lord  Jesus  Christ.  And  Christ  is  Christianity. 
It  is  not  the  gospel  system  that  saves  us;  it  is  the 
gospel's  Redeemer.  That  preaching  is  the  most 
effective  which  most  clearly  and  persuasively 
presents  Jesus  as  the  divine  Saviour,  Substitute, 
and  Surety;  that  life  is  the  most  symmetrical 
and  holy  which  is  the  most  closely  copied  after 
him  as  the  divine  Model. 

There  is  not  a  more  beautiful  episode  in  the 
life  of  our  Lord  than  that  one  which  occurred  at 
the  beginning  of  his  last  supper  with  his  disci- 
ples, when  he  did  what  none  but  a  slave  was  wont 
to  do:  he  washed  his  disciples'  feet?  Having  per- 
formed this  wonderful  act  of  humility  and  un- 


KEEPING  THE   EYE   ON  JEvSUS.  155 

selfishness,  he  says  to  them,  ''  I  have  given  you 
an  example^  that  ye  should  do  as  I  have  done  to 
you."  Not  that  we  are  literally  to  wash  each 
other's  feet;  but  we  are  to  fill  each  other's  hands, 
bear  each  other's  loads,  dry  each  other's  tears, 
and  comfort  each  other's  hearts. 

Again,  the  enthusiastic  Peter  in  his  first 
Epistle  tells  us  that  "Christ  also  suffered  for  us, 
leaving  us  an  example^  that  ye  should  follow  his 
steps."  The  Greek  word  signifies  a  writing-copy 
to  be  closely  imitated  in  every  stroke  of  the  pen. 
Paul  has  the  same  idea  in  his  mind  Avhen  he  bids 
us  to  "  look  at  Jesus,  the  author  and  the  perfecter 
of  our  faith."  And  if  I  were  asked  to  give  a 
simple  golden  counsel  to  a  young  convert  which 
could  be  easily  remembered  and  which  would  be 
available  for  every  emergency  in  life,  it  would 
be  this:  Keep  your  eye  on  Jesus  ! 

The  godly  Charles  Simeon,  of  Cambridge, 
kept  a  picture  of  the  heroic  missionary,  Henry 
IMartyn,  hanging  on  the  wall  of  his  room.  Look- 
ing up  towards  it  he  would  often  say,  "There! 
See  that  blessed  man !     What  an  expression  of 


15^  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

countenance !  No  one  looks  at  me  as  he  does. 
He  seems  always  to  be  saying  to  me,  '  Be  serious; 
be  in  earnest;  don't  trifle.'  "  Then  bowino:  to- 
wards  the  benign,  thoughtful  face  of  ]\Iartyn, 
Simeon  would  add,  "No,  I  wont,  I  wont  trifle." 
If  there  was  an  inspiration  to  earnestness 
always  to  be  caught  from  looking  at  a  noble  and 
Christlike  man,  how  much  more  from  looking 
at  Christ  himself.  The  divine  Spirit  has  pre- 
sented in  the  New  Testament  a  matchless  pic- 
ture, and  has  hung  it  up,  as  it  were,  before  our 
eyes.  It  is  the  infinitely  beautiful  countenance 
of  my  lyord  and  Master.  It  is  "marred  more 
than  any  other  of  the  sons  of  men  "  by  the  traces 
of  the  struggle  in  Gethsemane  and  the  agony  on 
the  cross.  The  most  serene  patience  sits  on  that 
countenance,  as  when  he  "answered  not  a  word" 
to  Pilate,  and  as  when  he  prayed,  "Father,  for- 
give them.  They  know  not  what  they  do." 
Every  lineament  of  that  face  is  love.  Holiness 
spreads  an  ineffable  grandeur  over  it  which  no 
Raphael  or  Da  Vinci  can  reproduce.  Ten  thou- 
sand-fold more  real,   more  inspiring,  more  soul- 


KEEPING  THE   EYE   ON  JESUS.  157 

rousing  than  any  painting  is  the  image  to  my 
eye  of  Him  who  ever  says,  "  Look  at  me;  learn 
of  ME." 

Yes,  and  how  earnestly  he  says  to  us,  '*Live 
for  me  !"  Sometimes  we  recoil  from  a  disagree- 
able duty  or  a  painful  load.  How  promptly 
those  lips  of  our  Lord  speak  to  us:  "Whosoever 
will  not  take  up  his  cross  and  come  after  me  is 
not  worthy  of  me."  At  another  time  we  are 
cast  down  with  disappointment;  perhaps  a  chill 
of  despair  is  settling  over  our  hearts.  Just  then 
the  dear  divine  face  draws  very  close  to  us,  and 
we  hear  the  warm  words,  "  Let  not  your  heart 
be  troubled,  neither  let  it  be  afraid.  Lo!  I  am 
with  you  alway.  My  grace  is  sufficient  for 
thee."  When  we  are  tempted  to  a  resentful 
word  or  a  dishonest  deed,  the  countenance  re- 
bukes us  with  the  admonition,  "Wound  me  not 
in  the  house  of  my  friends."  As  Peter's  tears 
were  started  by  a  single  look  of  his  grieved  Mas- 
ter, so  ours  may  well  be  stirred  by  every  act  of 
disloyalty  to  him.  And  when  we  have  come 
back  ashamed  and  disgraced  from  a  cowardly  de- 


158  NEWLY   ENLISTED. 

sertion  of  the  right  in  an  hour  of  sharp  trial,  oh, 
how  that  face  upbraids  us  as  Jesus  seems  to  say, 
"  Could  ye  not  watch  with  me  one  hour  !"  Ev- 
ermore is  that  divine  Monitor  and  Model  before 
our  eyes,  teaching,  rebuking,  inspiring,  encour- 
aging, comforting,  and  guiding  us.  Let  me 
fasten  my  gaze  on  him!  Let  me  open  my  ears 
to  him!  Let  me  be  ever  treading  in  his  foot- 
steps, that  wherever  he  is  I  may  be  also! 

Certain  choice  spirits  of  the  human  race  have 
shone  in  some  peculiar  virtue,  as  Joseph  in  chas- 
tity, Daniel  in  integrity,  Luther  in  courage, 
Wilberforce  and  Elizabeth  Fry  in  philanthropy. 
But  these  were  only  imperfect  copies  of  the 
divine  ideal  of  life  set  before  them.  Let  us  keep 
our  eyes  steadfastly  upon  One  who  embraced  in 
himself  all  virtues  and  excellences  in  full  perfec- 
tion, and  who  in  every  possible  point  is  an  ex- 
ample for  us.  Our  daily  and  hourly  conflict  is 
with  sin.  Jesus  did  no  sin,  yet  temptations  came 
to  him  as  really  as  they  come  to  us,  for  he  was  a 
man  beset  just  as  we  are.  He  conquered  tempta- 
tions by  never  presumptuously  running  into  dan- 


KEEPING  THE   EYE  ON  JESUS.  159 

ger,  by  resisting  first  suggestions  to  evil,  and  by 
using  that  sword  of  the  Spirit  which  is  the  Word 
of  God. 

Christ  is  our  model  too  in  consecration  to  the 
Father's  will.  His  meat  was  to  perform  that 
"will.  His  imtiring  motto  was,  "My  Father 
worketh  hitherto,  and  I  work."  Between  the 
activities  of  the  Father  in  heaven  and  of  the  in- 
carnate Son  there  was  no  discord  and  no  jar. 
When  I  can  lay  down  my  daily  plans  of  life 
upon  God's  revealed  Word  and  find  them  fit, 
then  what  satisfaction  does  the  humblest  act 
bring  to  me !  Ever  too  let  us  observe  how  ut- 
terly unselfish  Jesus  was:  what  journeyings  to 
reach  single  cases  of  suffering;  what  braving  of 
popular  scorn  to  befriend  the  publican  and  the 
outcast;  what  endless  expenditure  of  sympathy; 
what  tireless  going  about  doing  good!  When 
that  gentle  spirit  of  his  was  aroused  by  the  sight 
of  hypocrisy  and  falsehood,  how  he  could  scathe 
and  scorch  the  Pharisee  with  his  righteous  indig- 
nation! Those  overflowings  of  indignation  were 
the  surcharge  of  his  holiness.      When  I  behold 


I  Go  NEWLY  ENLISTED. 

my  Master  anathematizing  the  "  whited  sepul- 
chres" of  sin,  and  yet  pronouncing  pardon  on  a 
penitent  harlot,  I  learn  just  how  I  should  keep 
in  proper  poise  my  hatred  for  iniquity  and  my 
pitying  love  for  those  who  ' '  are  overtaken  in  a 
fault." 

And  so  let  every  day  of  my  life  be  spent  be- 
fore my  great  Teacher's  face  and  my  eyes  never 
wander  from  that  wonderful  form!  As  soon  let 
the  drowning  man  forget  the  plank  which  sus- 
tains him  in  the  sea  as  for  me  to  forget  the  Sa- 
viour who  upholds  me  with  his  omnipotent  arm. 
As  soon  let  the  home-bound  mariner  lose  sight  of 
the  lighthouse  which  guides  him  to  his  haven  as 
for  you  and  me  to  lose  sight  of  Him  who  is  the 
Way,  the  Truth,  and  the  Life.  Reynolds  used 
to  say,  "  I  only  look  at  the  best  pictures.  A  bad 
one  spoils  my  eye."  In  like  manner  shall  we 
find  that  the  study  of  our  King  in  his  beauty 
shall  purify  our  vision;  and  the  more  we  look  at 
Jesus  the  more  shall  we  look  like  Jesus. 


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